Heart of Gold
by JaceK18
Summary: Ayako and Miu had never met each other in their lives. When they were brought together by otherworldly creatures, they were sent back in time to prevent the damage that Kira imposed onto humanity. The only way to do this is to stop Light Yagami from ever getting hold of the Death Note. Will have one-sided Light/OC. Will stray greatly from the original plotline.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I didn't own Death Note.

Chapter 1

_We scooped our way into your dreams_

_To knock the knives out bloody cold_

_And lead you down the unforsaken road_

Marina and the Diamonds/**Mowgli's Road**

December 31st 2014 10:34pm

The cold night breeze blew my fringe into my eyes. I sweep it out of my eyes, wishing that I had brought a hair clip with me. My mother walks beside me; we were behind my dad and my little brother, Takeshi. My older sister, Noa; wasn't with us; she parted ways with us when she saw her friends.

I shove my hands deep into my coat pockets, which wasn't very deep, since my pockets can barely fit my smartphone.

My mother looks at me. "Are you cold?" She asked in a reprimanding voice. "Do you want my scarf?"

I deny her. I didn't like scarfs. They're too restricting around my neck. I hardly wear necklaces either, or button my shirts up to the top. It feels like I can't breathe.

Usually New Year's Eve is pretty quiet. We normally stay at home and have a quiet celebration like most families do, but this year, my brother wanted to have a western celebration. Initially I was against it, but whatever Takeshi wanted, he got it.

We were going to a restaurant, and later we would migrate to Shibuya crossing, where there would be a small celebration until the New Year, where were would count down until it was 2015.

I thought it was pretty stupid. We could do the same things in the comfort of our own house, but my parents thought that it was a good idea. I had no choice but to go along. New Year's Eve is a 'family time'. My sister had put up a really huge fight with my parents so she could go with her friends. My parents only let her go when they finally realised that she was now legally an adult and let her go.

I was 17, so I was still living under my parent's care, even though I was turning 18 in 1 month and 5 days, but to my parents, I was still a little child in their eyes. .

We stop at a restaurant. There was a balcony over the side, so you could eat watching all the passers-by walk past the restaurant.

It was a pretty fancy restaurant all-in-all. Very few people were in there. There's a family consisting of a mother, father, two girls and boy. On a separate table there is a woman dining alone, and another woman who was looking what to order. I didn't think much of them when I walked in with my family, but I noticed when the woman who was looking what to order looked up at me, with unsettling eyes, when she caught me looking, she quickly looked away to the other family, her eyes on one of the girls. She looks back to her menu, and apparently decides that she doesn't want anything and promptly leaves.

It's warm inside, and the restaurant has yellowish tone from the dim lights hanging from the ceiling. A waiter hastily comes up to us, scanning his eyes over the top of our heads.

"A table for four?" He asked.

"Yes, please." My mother said.

"Excellent, come this way." He guided us to a small table, with four woven chairs on the edges.

I sat down, adjusting my shirt as I did so. The menu is already in front of us on the table. I pick one up as everyone else joins me.

I quickly scan the menu, even though I already know what I am going to order.

I scan for the ramen, noticing that it was only 840 yen. Score! Ramen was always my usual order whenever I go to restaurants. It was tasty, and was usually ready to serve, since that what most western tourists came to try whenever they came to Japan, and since it was New Years, no doubt that the crossing would be full of tourists. I was even sort of surprised that there weren't any in the restaurant.

I close the menu, setting it on the table, considering if I should get some sushi instead. That was a delicacy that we never really have in Japan.

I decided for a change and order some sashimi.

It wasn't long until the same waiter came over to ask us what we want to eat.

My dad asked what my brother wants, and we all go around the table saying what dish we want to eat.

When I say that I want a platter of sushi, my brother made a strangled noise, exclaiming profusely. "Something other than ramen? I'm amazed!" He said loudly, hands flailing in the air.

I roll my eyes. My brother has a flair for theatrics.

The waiter nods. "Your food will be ready soon," He said, then leaves.

My brother made a small discussion at the table. "You're going to university this year, weren't you? Which one were you going to again?"

I nod. "To-Oh." I say bluntly.

"Cool!" My brother said.

I shrug. "I guess so. Have you heard the rumours that the original Kira used to go to that school?"

I spoke in a hushed voice. A few years ago, a delusional person had found the power to murder people without ever having to lay their hands on the person. Criminals started dying all over the globe, and nobody could do anything to stop it. I didn't know all of the details of what happened. All I know, or have figured out using deductive reasoning, was the person who had believed him to become the new God of humanity, had either been apprehended, or is dead.

I was 9 years old when Kira first started killing, so a lot of the details were hazy for me, and ever since it stopped and the case deemed over, everything had been kept hushed up, like nothing had ever happened.

I didn't care, to be honest. It was done, it was over, but there was still the looming feeling of something supernatural. After everything that had happened, a lot of people were scared. No human could have the power to kill anybody simply with a heart attack, as was Kira's preferred method of killing. There was something else sharing the universe with us. That much was certain, even if many people tried to deny it.

The thought of an omniscient being watching us, judging us- or whatever, gave me mixed feelings. Before Kira had started judging, I didn't really believe in anything. My parent's both prayed to Budda, and sometimes we went to temples, but I didn't really believe in anything still. But now, if anyone had a religion 10 years ago, it was all screwed up. Kira had ruined many people's beliefs, and now nobody really knew what to believe in, knowing now that there was definitely _something_ out there.

"Really?" My brother asked. "That's kind of frightening, didn't you think?"

The waiter comes up to us, carrying a bottle of chilled water and some small glasses. She sets them down on the table, and I pour a glass of water.

"Not really," I say. "It's just a rumour." I say with finality. I down my glass.

The food arrives. My dish is small. I'd probably pick things off my mother's udon. She's likely not to eat it all anyway.

I pick up the chopsticks, picking off the raw fish, dipping it into the wasabi. The bitter hotness fills my mouth and I try not to taste it. It gives the sashimi a kind of tanginess.

All in all, it tastes pretty good. I try to eat slowly, so I'm not the first one finished and didn't have to wait until everyone is done.

My mother comments on how tasty everything is. I noticed that there is music playing in the background, a mix of calming songs. It's an English song I didn't know, but I can understand. I enjoy the song, and make a mental note to find out what it is when I get home.

I was pretty good at the English language. In fact, I wasn't just _good. _I was pretty fluent. The top of my class. I also knew a bit of Greek, because ever since I went travelling around the world a couple of years ago, and when my Aunt Hitomi fell in love with a man from a Greek island, we went over to Greece for their wedding, and there I learnt a few Greek words. Mostly curse words. The funny thing is, Hitomi doesn't know one word of Greek, and her husband doesn't spoke Japanese either, but they both know English, so that's how they communicate. If that's not true love- staying with someone even though you didn't spoke a word of their native language- I didn't know what is.

Soon after we finish our food, it was nearing midnight. We pay for our food, and then leave, heading for the Shibuya crossing. I noticed that the other family that went to the same restaurant that we were in were going to the crossing as well. They were walking in front of us, so we just followed them, since we weren't exactly natives to the Shibuya area.

The crossing was teeming with people, mostly tourists. I cross my arms stoically. The crossing was like one humongous street party, and well… I wasn't really one for street parties.

I rub my eyes, feigning tiredness, and then I worry whether I rubbed my mascara all over my face, then I remember that I didn't even put on any makeup because I most likely wasn't going to see anybody I know here, or anyone good looking either, because you got to keep up appearances, according to my mother and sister. They both had expertise for makeup, and in the first few years of my teenage years, I never had an interest in makeup, but as I got older, I realised that it wasn't such a bad thing that people made it out to be.

You weren't any more natural or unnatural if you didn't wear makeup or not. At least that was what I thought.

Anyway, there was loud dance music playing, and there a lot of lights flashing. All in all, it was very loud, very large and very rowdy. People were taking pictures, and mostly everyone was smiling and having fun. I noticed some people in costumes, and others in Lolita garb and other fashion cultures as well.

Soon enough, I actually found myself enjoying the night.

We stayed a little bit past the crossing, but when the countdown would begin, we would cross it to watch the numbers be projected on the mass of the building around us.

There was only two minutes to go, so we quickly went up to the crossing, and stood at the very edge of it. Only one minute left.

It was agonising, waiting for the countdown. Normally I am a patient person, but I was excited.

Finally, there was a noise like a horn blaring loudly, interrupting the music playing on the speakers, signifying the start of the countdown.

We start to cross the road, in the first second that it started counting down. That was when something strange and superbly abnormal happened.

Time seemed to stand still, and I got a painful, terrible headache.

I almost screamed out loud, but I bit on my bottom lip. Instead there was just the sound of a muffled noise of pain. My eyes had shut, and my hands were clutched around my head.

When I opened my eyes, I was somewhere unknown, but also strangely familiar. My headache was gone, almost as if it was never there in the first place. I look around, turning around the spot. I take a few steps backwards, my breath hitching in my throat. And then I bump into something.

I whirl around, and there is another girl there. She has black hair reaching to her chin, a round face, full lips and dark eyes. I gasp, and she takes a few steps backwards.

It feels like there is darkness enclosing around us. It makes me feel claustrophobic and scared.

"I-I-I" I say, but no words form.

I hear something rustling. It sounds like wheat in the wind. I look at the girl in front of me. She looks like she wants to say something as well, but her words fail her.

I look at her but she is looking at something else. Her expression is slack, her face blanched. I follow her line of sight, and when I see what she is staring at, I almost topple backwards.

There is some strange kind of being standing before us. It had a strange twisted smile, and long stringy black hair tied back. It had limbs like a human, except there was something ethereal about it.

"Hello." It said simply.

I clap a hand over my mouth to stop myself from screaming.

It noticed the look on my face and frowned, looking behind itself. "What?" The voice sounded masculine. "Is there something scary behind me?"

When it realised that there was nothing, he frowned even deeper. His face seemed like it was made of undried clay, like it would be easy to squish under your hands.

"Oh. You're referring to me, weren't you? You know that's really rude! Once upon a time you humans used to worship _kami _like me!"

I frowned at the scolding, and then I took a few steps back when my senses came to me. "What do you mean? _Kami_!" I look to the girl beside me. She looked like she… accepted this. I stare at her. "Why were you so calm? We need to get out of here!" I say. I'm panicking.

She replies in a quiet voice. "I didn't know what's going on either. But… something is definitely going on. There's obviously something bigger than the both of us here, judging by this…"

"_Chimita-no-kami_!" He said indignantly.

The girl was quick to appease him. I looked at her incredulously. She shrugged at me, as if to say 'seeing is believing.' "And is that your name, or your… species?"

The _chimita-no-kami _scoffed. "Of course it's not my name! My name is Hajime."

The girl smiled, she was still calm. "Nice to meet you, Hajime. My name is Ayako, and this is…"

She waits for me to say my name. "…Miu." I say grudgingly.

Ayako smiles, satisfied, "Great." She said. She kneels down low, to look the _kami_ in the eye, since it was a rather small thing, barely reaching up to my knee. "Now, what is it that you came to us for?"

I remember the other creature that I saw before, and I look to the side, to see if it was still there, or if I was just hallucinating. For all I know, I might have been hallucinating now. That was probably it. There must have been something in my sashimi; I should have just stuck to the ramen.

Nevertheless, drugged or not, the creature was still there, and it was moving slowly, as if it was encased in water. It had long limbs and a narrow body, hunched over on all fours, slightly resembling a lion.

I swallow and look back at the creature. It sighed heavily. And looked at its wrist as if checking the time, but then realised that it didn't have a watch.

He made a noise of disgruntlement. "I'll tell you soon. Just wait a few seconds, will you?"

"Uh, okay." Ayako said.

I definitely was _not okay._

"Wait, _what?_" I almost screech. I was going crazy in here. It was dark as night and I couldn't see the ground beneath my feet. I stayed still where I was, feeling like if I was going to take another step I would fall down into a great abyss. "I-I didn't know what I'm doing here! You-you take us away from our f_amilies, _and then you didn't tell us what we were here for? Were you _crazy_? Or maybe I'm the crazy one here!"

The _kami _growled. "Hey you, girl! I'm trying my best here, okay. I have orders, and I have to initiate them, alright. It shouldn't be too long now until we can explain everything! See, we _kami _can be assigned with one human, and mine just so happens to be this one-" He pointed to Ayako. "And this one over there," He pointed to the lion-esque figure "Is still waking up and he's the one connected to you! He's the one who's gonna tell you what's going on, so calm down, and be patient, alright?"

I am still teeming with more questions. "What do you mean connected?" I ask. My voice is a bit calmer, but still holds it harshness.

The _chimita-no-kami _crosses its arms. "I mean, we were your guides. Maybe connections was a bit strong of a term, but we were essentially your guides, that means that if you accept your task then we have to help you through it, alright? Now stop jumping down my throat. We're just tryin' to do our jobs here." He said grumpily.

I cross my arms as well, a mirror image of the short creature standing indignantly before us. "Whatever." I retort smartly.

We stand in an uncomfortable silence for several seconds. I'm looking at the sleeping creature that is apparently my guide, and then I jump backwards when it opens it wide, furry maw and lets out a loud roar, not unlike that of a lion, either.

My hand jumps to my chest and I let out a noise of surprise. And then in half a second, it stands before me.

And it's the strangest, beautiful thing I have ever seen. It was like an animal in stature, with a head like a grizzly bear, a mane like a lion and a long sleek body like that of no animal that I had ever seen before.

My jaw drops, but I am still wary of it.

It spokes. "I am Toshigami."

I didn't say a word. Ayako spokes for me. "Hello. I am Ayako, and this is Miu. I want to know-"

I interrupt her, tired of her peacefulness and soft spoken voice. "What were we doing here?" I ask roughly.

He spokes immediately without falter. "To put simply, the world has fallen to ruins. It's up to you to fix that."

"It seems perfectly fine to me." I say.

"Maybe it does to you, but unless you have been watching over the Earth since the time you were born, you start to realise things. The world has never been perfect, but it was functioning. It was all until very recently, that things have started to fall apart. I suppose you can guess what the recent occurrence is." His eyes flicker between Ayako and I.

"Kira." We say at the same time.

"Indeed." Toshigami said. I frown, noticing how Hajime has not spoken. I look at him, and he is tight lipped. I deduce that Toshigami is held in higher reverence than a chimita-no-kami is.

"So what is it that we were to do?" Ayako asked.

"I ask for your assistance to go back in time and stop Kira from becoming Kira." He said plainly.

I make a start. "Go back in time?" I ask, disbelief dripping from my voice. "I understand that you have… magical powers or whatever that will allow you to do that, but wasn't this sort of… illogical? How were we even supposed to know who Kira is? How were we supposed to stop him?"

Toshigami's eyes glinted. "All I can tell you is that Kira drew his powers from a Death Note of the Shinigami realm. If you can locate the Death Note, you will find Kira. I know you have a lot of questions," He said, noticing the look on my face as I was about to interrupt him, "And there were only a few things I can tell you. We _kami, _and even the entire global pantheon,that is, the ancient gods that ruled over the worlds have been… woken. Before the Shinigami named Ryuk dropped his Death Note to Earth, humanity was quite… peaceful. When Kira claimed himself a god of the new world, we were too late to act, especially me, since I am asleep every day except for one day of the year, the first of January.

"Besides that, humanity had progressed so well without our guidance, so we simply became lazy. Believe it or not, when we interfered with the lives of humans, terrible things happened. Even more so than these criminal acts. Of course, these acts were still present in this century, but they were worse in your ancient times. Kira had not realised that, and if he had truly succeeded in becoming a god, the Earth would have returned to its horrific state that it had been in before."

I look incredulous. I had been interested in history and studied it by myself with no prompting from school or anything like that, but he was speaking like there have been no heinous criminal acts for a very long time.

Toshigami gazes into my eyes. And it feels like he knows exactly what I'm thinking. Or maybe my expression is just that obvious.

"I have been alive for over 1000 years, Miu." He said in a slow, drawling voice. "Everywhere you went in Japan when I was still young and we interfered, there was an abundance of death and sexual exploits and assaults. There were plenty of wars and there was no peace."

"The world hasn't changed much then." I point out.

Toshigami lets out a sight of very warm air. "Let me put this simpler for you," He said impatiently. "10 out of 10 women in ancient Japan have been physically assaulted. Since then, the number has greatly dwindled-Yes, I know it hasn't stopped, but what I'm trying to say, is that if Kira pulled through with his plans, then those statistics would have risen 5 times as much as it was in ancient times. Does that make sense?"

I say that it does. I get it now. Before, men could do whatever they wanted with whoever they wanted to, without ever having to face the consequences. Now there is the law that condemns all those things, and even if it still is abundant in the world, it is still less than what it used to be.

"Alright, I suppose… but Kira failed, didn't he? So why do you need us for?" I look at Ayako, who had been quiet in the presence of Toshigami.

"Ah, you forget." Toshigami said. "We cannot leave Earth the way it is. Do you noticed how there is no one who talks of Kira anymore? As if he never existed, am I right? Nobody wants to acknowledge that there was something supernatural going on throughout that time, humans were so funny" He snorts "They were so eager to believe that there is someone watching over them so they can blame them when things go haywire, but when there is someone tangible, they pretend not to see it."

I nodded. "Yep. Hilarious." I said drily. I may not have been a person of faith (although actually meeting some gods is doing things to disprove that) but I have friends who were highly faithful and of many different religions that I didn't find it funny to shame people on relying on beings or deities that gave them hope.

Toshigami sighed, realising that he had picked his words wrong. That or he was upset that I had talked him down and he was getting nowhere with his explanation.

Ayako looks at me sternly. "Can you just let him finish?" There were lines on her forehead from where she was frowning.

I was going to retort, but then thought better of it and sighed. I made a gesture to him, as if allowing him to go on.

He looked pleased, if a bear could look pleased. "Thank you," He said pointedly to Ayako. "Now, may I go on without being interrupted?"

"If you didn't have anything stupid to say." I mutter under my breath, looking him in the eye. His eyes flash with a fiery glint.

"Remember who you're talking to." He said sternly. I refrain from rolling my eyes. He continues from where he left off. "Now, since nobody wants to acknowledge Kira, everything that he has done has caused a worldwide confused, downward spiral. He murdered many people before their life spans had ended, eradicating four fifths of the world's population in the span of 10 years. Even now, the world is still young, and it'll be a long time until there are no criminal acts in the world. Kira acted too quickly, too hastily and too prematurely. I'm afraid that if you do not go through with this mission, the entire world will fall back into old habits.

"I didn't know if you have noticed, but there were a lot more homeless now. The majority of people that Kira killed were men, and nearly everywhere in the world, the men were the 'bread winners'- and yes, Miu, I know that's not the case everywhere, but statistically speaking- which means that if these criminals had a family, they would have been surely going broke. Governments around the world have been doing whatever they can to help these innocent families, providing them with a small amount of money, calling it the Kira Initiative, to get back on their feet, but that is simply not enough, and now, there is a prejudice against people who have had people close to them killed by Kira, even if no one wants to say it outright, which makes it harder for these people to find jobs."

Honestly I had not even noticed. Probably because I was one of the fortunate people who had not had anyone close me killed by Kira. I looked at Ayako, who looked like she already knew all this. Maybe she had someone die.

"There were still the people who think that Kira is alive and still passing judgement, although he is not." I nodded. There were plenty of those crazies out on the streets, protesting against the hushed up-ness of the Kira case.

Toshigami went on. "They believe that whoever suffers from a heart attack, whether they live or not is the cause of Kira. If they live, that means that Kira is warning them not to do something bad."

Toshigami made a noise like a scoff and said bitterly: "As if they need any more reminders. Anyway, we _kami _believe that it is only a matter of time until another Shinigami becomes bored and drops their notebook for more entertainment, so in order to delay that, we have confiscated many Shinigami's notebooks, very reluctantly, mind you, and have only left the most responsible of Shinigami to carry notebooks… and there were very few responsible Shinigami."

I noticed that ever since he came here, Toshigami had not even glanced at Hajime, but when I looked at Hajime, I noticed that he had not once taken his eyes off him, like he was starstruck. I frown slightly, wondering why Toshigami had not acknowledged him at all, but he just keeps on talking.

"Anyhow, since we were worried about how the human world is going to progress after Kira, we _kami _have taken upon us to make it right."

I nod. Ayako spoke this time.

"What do you want us to do?" She asked warily.

Hajime finally tears his eyes away from Toshigami. When he spoke, it was much more formal and slow, as if weighing each word carefully.

"We ask you to go back in time to stop Kira from ever becoming himself." His voice is much softer, and less… in your face.

The change was startling. And so was his answer, but I have to say, I would have been pretty stupid not to expect something like that.

I crossed my arms, not too eager to go messing with time. "Can't you just remove everyone's memories of Kira, or something, instead of making it all the more complicated?"

Ayako frowns and said in a doubtful voice the same time I spoke. "What if we fail?"

Toshigami and Hajime answered our questions separately, respectively:

"We cannot tamper with the entire population of humanities memories. Trust me, we all thought about it, but we deemed it too taxing, and too dangerous. What if someone remembered? What if we missed somebody and they spread the word? Amnesia is something dangerous, however making it so a being never existed, that would be so." Toshigami said.

Hajime looked at Ayako with strange eyes, like he pitied her. "That's why we were going to be here, to guide to make sure that you didn't fail."

Ayako and I still had plenty more questions, but Ayako was the first to voice them.

"Why were we chosen?"

Hajime seemed more comfortable speaking now, since he had raised his voice the first time, so he answered. Or maybe he is just more comfortable talking to Ayako, since they were connected, or whatever the reason was.

"Well, out of all the people all over the globe, you and Miu were the only candidates."

I frowned, finding it ridiculous that out of the entire world, we were the only ones available. Ayako voiced my thoughts, thinking the same as me.

Hajime keeps on explaining, and surprisingly enough, it actually makes sense. "Anyone who qualifies doesn't spoke Japanese, and that is where Kira resides, and I'm afraid someone who does not seem like a native would just draw too much attention. You both were natives to the area where Kira lived, and I believe that you, Miu have quite fine deductive skills."

I was shocked to find him complimenting me, and that he knew about my skills, nonetheless! He was still addressing me. "You have a similar personality to someone who came quite close to catching the killer, and you Ayako. You're quite creative and emotional, and never minding that, you were both the most intelligent people that could possibly succeed in this mission, therefore you can both use each other's skills and intelligence to come up with a plan on how to overcome Kira and stop him"

Toshigami made a loud noise… sort of like he's yawning. He said in his slow, drawling voice: "We were running out of time. You only have a few seconds to make your choice. Any other questions you have will be answered if you accept. You must both accept, otherwise, if you go by yourself, the task will be doomed. The consequences if you decline will be grave. Do you accept?"

He gave us a choice, but it was a take it or you will die kind of choice. It's only up to us to make Kira's wrongs right. Ayako and I spoke simultaneously.

"We accept."

**A/N: So, there it is. I'm probably going to update very slowly, please excuse any tense changes! This was originally in present tense and I tried to change it to past tense to best of my ability, so sorry if I missed anything! I have everything up to chapter 8 written out, but I'd rather update with a new chapter when I finish writing current chapters! As always, constructive criticism is welcome.**


	2. Chapter 2

Miu's P.O.V

Chapter 2

_We just met_

_And I know I'm a bit too intimate_

_But something huge is coming up_

_And we're both included._

Bjork/**Big Time Sensuality**

Sunday 15th November 2003

As soon as we said those words, there was no hesitation, and there was no going back. There was a moment of complete silence, in which I could not even hear myself, or any of the others breathing. I looked at Toshigami who had his black eyes closed. The atmosphere around us felt like it was growing thicker, and I did not move.

Then there was the headache. It felt like someone had reached their hand into my head to my brain, and started messing around with it. My eyes squeezed shut tightly, and I was seeing black.

When I came to my senses, the first thing I noticed was the noise. I shut my hands over my ears, blocking out the sound. My eyes opened, and hissed, squinting. Why was it so _bright_?

Then someone bumped into me, and since I was so disorientated, I almost fell over. I regained my balance quickly, as the person walked away without as much as a sorry. I blinked wildly, trying to force my eyes to get used to the light, and slowly lowered my hands away from my ears.

Ayako was standing right beside me, her hands covering her eyes completely, only leaving little gaps in between her fingers like blinds. She turned around and looked at me… at least I _think_ she did. It was hard to tell, what with her fingers covering her eyes.

I looked at the ground, but the sun was reflecting against the gravel, so that made it all the worse to see, so I figured that covering my eyes like Ayako was doing wasn't such a bad idea, and so I went to extend my arms to cover my eyes, but when my hand uncurled, something heavy had fallen into it.

I involuntarily made a noise of a mix between shock and confusion, and looked at it, covering it with my hand to make a shadow. It was a small red plastic firework, like something from a child's toy. With my free hand I shielded my eyes like a visor, and looked around. And then I jumped. Right before my eyes was Toshigami. I nudged Ayako with my elbow, and indicated Toshigami to her. She looked at me confused, frowned.

"_What_?" She mouthed, the 'w' playing on her lips.

"Look!" I said, pointing.

She looked at me like I was going crazy, her hands coming to a rest by her sides. Apparently she could see just fine now. Then she lifted her hand up to her eyes, as if examining something.

"What the…?" She muttered, looking at me, then showing me the object that had mysteriously appeared in her dark tanned hand. I noticed that her fingers were thin and spindly. In her hand was a dark grey stone, like asphalt. I held out my own hand, showing her the small toy firework.

Suddenly Ayako jumped backward onto the foot path (we were standing on the gutter), her heel hitting the raised pavement.

"What? Hey, Ayako!" I said, startled. I looked back at Toshigami, who came stalking towards us on all fours.

My attention was drawn away from Toshigami when Ayako started talking to herself. "Make her touch this as well….? Yes, I know that's what you just said… Okay whatever. Be quiet now."

"What did you say to me?" I asked, offended. "I didn't say anything."

She looked at me, her eyes wide. Her cheeks flushed, abashed. "I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to Hajime."

"He's here? Where's the mushroom?" I looked around, my eyes drawn to the ground searching for him.

Ayako snorted, and held out the stone for me. "He says to touch this. And I have to touch your toy firework."

I shrugged and held out my hand. Her fingers tapped the toy once, and then I grazed her stone.

"…And who are you calling a mushroom?" Came a gruff voice.

My eyes landed on the brown, goblin looking creature.

"I'm calling you a mushroom." I said bluntly. Toshigami had crossed the road over to us. It was then that I realised that this place was really familiar. "Are we… in Shibuya?" I asked.

I looked around, noticed the wide crossing, and all the building surrounding us.

"Yes, we are." Came Toshigami's deep voice.

"What are we still doing _here_?" Ayako asked.

Toshigami leaped gracefully onto the sidewalk, and continued to walk, leading us past many shops and kiosks.

Hajime answered. "We're not _still here, _exactly. Look around you. What seems different here than before?"

I looked around. We passed a bus stop which had a billboard for a movie: _When the Last Sword Is Drawn. _The movie sounds familiar. I must have watched it a very long time ago, but the strange thing was, at the bottom of the poster, it said 'Now Showing,' like it had only come out just recently.

I pointed it out to Ayako, who was looking around at the people on the street. "That's weird. I'm pretty sure I saw that movie when I was 9 or ten something."

Then if came to us simultaneously. "Oh!" We exclaimed in delight.

"We went back in time, didn't we?" Ayako asked, grinning. A couple walked past us, giving us strange looks.

Toshigami turned back to us, his mouth curled upwards into what I supposed was a smile. "That's right. You are in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, November 15th 2003."

I nodded, understanding. "Right." I said.

Ayako frowned. I could tell that she was brimming with questions. I was too, but I figured to let her go first.

"How come we need these objects to see you?" She asked, holding up her piece of asphalt as if they had forgotten. "Why didn't we need them before? Wherever we were before…"

Toshigami was the one to explain. "Because we were in the midst where humans and _kami _can meet, in Limbo, as would be the broadest definition of that land. Even we _kami_ don't know of its origins, and we believe it is older than even the earth itself. You didn't need those objects because our own objects, even the Death Note have been infiltrated with the properties of that being. It will allow you to see the invisible."

"Oh." Ayako says. "So we didn't need these because we were basically touching them the whole time. I guess that makes sense."

I nodded. It did. I frowned at the mention of the Death Note. Toshigami and Hajime had been talking about it like we were supposed to know exactly what it is, but we didn't.

To me, it sounded like a letter that somebody would write when they died, or something like that. I was about to ask, but Ayako had another question that she put out before I could even open my mouth.

"Who is Kira, anyway?"

Good question.

"All will become clear in due time." Toshigami said cryptically.

"That doesn't help…" A thought came to my mind. "Are you just trying to say that you don't even know who the person behind Kira is?" I asked, my voice rising a bit.

"What do you mean we don't know who it is?" Hajime grumbled. "Of _course _we know who it is_._ We just want to make it a bit harder for you, that's all."

I stopped in my tracks, "Is that supposed to be a joke?" I asked harshly.

"Nope." Hajime replied.

I looked at Toshigami, but he just kept on walking. I turn to Ayako, who looks just as annoyed and unsettled as I do.

"Can you believe this?" Ayako asks under her under her breath.

I shake my head. "Why does this have to be so much more complicated than it already is?" I grumble back to her. "I suppose all that we can do now is try to use our knowledge to narrow it down to who he actually is."

Ayako nods, we keep walking until we have caught up with the _kami. _"So since you won't tell us, can we make reasonable deductions as to who it might be?"

"Why wouldn't you?" Toshigami says.

I grumble under my breath, "'Cos you're not being very helpful right now…" But nobody picks up on what I said.

Ayako keeps on going. "So you know that Kira is definitely a 'he,' right? Because you keep on saying he."

"That's right." Toshigami admitted.

Ayako turns to me. "Let's review what we know so far. He's male, he lives in the Kanto region of Japan and… what else?"

I shrug. "That's basically it. Even back at home they would keep everything silent." Kira's death was hidden from the public, so for months on people still paraded on about how Kira was the world's saviour. But since then, mostly everyone figured that something had happened and that he was unable to kill anymore.

"Helpful." I muttered, then I said loudly: "Can you give us hints?"

I heard what I thought was a chuckle escape from Toshigami's lips. "I can give you guidance, however don't think that I am a guardian angel."

I shrugged, and Hajime butted in. "Yeah! We didn't sign up for that when we agreed to help you. We have our own jobs to do, so don't expect to see much of us."

Toshigami grumbled. "But if you ever need any help, don't hesitate. To get into contact with us, just tap your object once, and we will arrive as soon as we can. Now, since you need a place to stay in the time being, we've already found an apartment for you to stay in. The rent will be paid in due time by Hajime and I, since you have no funds, and you will be given some money by Hajime to get food, and other necessary items."

Hajime made a start, pausing to turn around back to us. His long spindly feet pointed towards as he walked backwards, digging a hand into his pants pocket with had a bulge, and pulling out, handing it to Ayako.

"Woah." She said, ruffling through the notes.

"How much is there?" I asked.

"A lot," She replied, still counting. "There's about 6,5000 yen here!"

"Are you joking?" I asked, ecstatic.

"Not at all!" She chirped. We turned a corner and almost bumped into a teenage girl. Ayako squeaked out an apology, and stuffed some of the cash into her jeans pocket. She gave the rest to me.

"How long will it be until we get to the apartment?" I asked. I took out my wallet from my bag and shoved it in.

"Not too long… ah, here it is." Toshigami said.

I looked straight ahead, looking at the towering apartment. It was painted white and had gleaming windows and a small balcony in each of the units.

"Awesome." I said.

In a few minutes we had arrived. We moved into our rooms not before greeting the landlord and getting our keys from him. Our room was three floors from the top, and we could see the city down below us from the balcony. "Wow." I muttered.

I turned back inside, searching around the rooms. It was fully furnished with a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom.

Amenities we had were an air conditioner, a heater, internet, cable tv and even a hair dryer and a flat iron.

There was only one bed, and a double futon. I ended up taking the futon out of the goodness of my heart, and also because Ayako had been overseas for a lot of her life, and had spent most of her time sleeping on beds, instead of on the floor, and I was afraid that she would get a terrible night's sleep if she slept on a futon on the floor.

I went into the kitchen where Ayako was sitting at a small wooden table talking to Hajime. I looked at the kitchen counter, noting the microwave, a toaster, and oven and a stove. In the corner we had a large fridge which had been plugged in, and occasionally made a whirring noise.

I heard Ayako's conversation to Hajime. I went looking for Toshigami, but I figured that he had left since I couldn't see him anywhere.

"…So, our parents don't know about this at all?" She was asking. Her voice took on a sombre tone.

"Well, no they don't. But if you go back when you've finished the mission, it'll be like no time had passed at all, see? We would send you back at the exact time before you left, makes sense?"

Ayako worried her bottom lip. "I guess…"

"Oh, and before I forget. You're still going to school tomorrow." Hajime said quickly.

Ayako and I looked at each other. I felt my face drop. I groaned inwardly.

"Now, we've enrolled you into a school that's different from your original schools, and it's highly prestigious, so we had to make it out like the two of you were really smart to get the two of you in there."

I smiled. I already knew that I was plenty smart. "What school is it?" I asked.

"Daikoku Private Academy. Heard of it?"

I nod. "Yeah. What about after high school? Do we still get to go into our university that we wanted to?"

Hajime shrugged. "I don't see why not. I just suppose that when you get back to your time, you would have to choose a different uni to go to. Or not, since you've already been. Although I would suppose that you would have a hard time explaining that to your parents."

"…Okay." I said. "Do we have our uniforms already?"

Hajime grumbled. "I knew I was forgetting something. Right. Well the day is still young so I don't suppose you girls are up for some shopping?" He asked.

I tilted my head up. "I'm cool with that."

"Same," Ayako said.

Hajime leapt of the table, landing on the tiled ground like an ugly, fat brown cat.

"Let's go then." He said, and began guiding us outside. We decided to get groceries as well since we were there, and then I had an idea.

"Hey, do you think that we could go back home and get some things that we want to bring over… like books and stuff for entertainment?"

Ayako looked impressed. "Good idea." She commented, as we walked, trying to find the uniform shop.

Hajime rubbed the back of his neck. "Ah, I would let you go, but we've received orders not to let you go back until you've succeeded in the mission."

I frowned. "Orders from who…? And what if we fail? What if we never even find out who Kira is?"

"Well, our orders come from our leader, the one who watches over the earth. And I know you won't fail, because you have us _kami_ to guide you, alright?'

I shrugged, still not satisfied. And he hadn't given us a straight answer about who is giving him the orders either.

"Oh look!" Hajime said, changing the subject. "I found the uniform shop."

We went in, searching for the _seifuku_: a black sailor _fuku _with a skirt that reached above my knees, and when I tried it on it reached even a bit higher than I would have liked it to because of my height, so I ended up getting a size up. It fit perfectly for Ayako. We paid for it, and then made out way to the nearest grocery store and bought as much as we could carry in plastic bags which included: fruit, vegetables, frozen meals, canned food, soda and cordial, rice and a lot of sweets. We also bought some school books, stationary, and plain school bags for the both of us.

When we arrived back home, we piled the vegetables and the drinks in the fridge and stored the frozen meals into the freezer beneath the fridge. We had bought a small fruit bowl from the grocery store as well and put the apples and bananas in there as well. I took the container of strawberries into the fridge and Ayako stored the rice and sweets in a shelf above the sink.

When we had finished packing everything away we looked around.

"Hey, where did Hajime go?" I asked.

"Oh, he said that he had some other things to do, so he left." Ayako said.

"Oh, cool." I said offhandedly. I walked over and slumped down on the wooden chair at the table, with Ayako following me. She let out a heavy sigh.

The table was next to the white painted wall and I leaned against it. "What a weird day." I said quietly.

Ayako looked at me with her piercing dark eyes. Her fringe was poking into her eyes, and she swept it away with a lithe finger. She brought it down to her black t-shirt and began playing with the hem. "Definitely." She said.

The atmosphere had turned into something like anticipation, and nervousness. The sun was filtering into the room, shining on the metal of the toaster, which reflected onto the ceiling. I yawned. Even though it was still in the morning, I was tired. It was probably because before we left, it was midnight, I realised. Weird, to be jetlagged when you never even left your own country.

"Are you tired?" Ayako asked.

"Yeah." I said.

"Me, too."

We fell into a silence for a few seconds.

"Wanna go to sleep?" I asked.

"Not really."

I understood that. "Me either. Wanna talk about all this stuff?"

"Yeah, okay." Ayako said.

I tried to think about what to say, but I couldn't. I didn't want to think of the possibilities of what might happen if we didn't succeed in this seemingly impossible mission. Something terrible, probably. We just fell into an awkward silence. I decided to try and get to know Ayako instead.

"So…" I said. "What are your hobbies?"

"I like to draw." She said, looking at me. "You?"

"I love reading." I said.

"Oh, cool."

We fell into a silence again, but I was determined to keep the conversation going.

"What's your favourite band?" I asked.

"Big Bang"

"Oh, I haven't listened to them before." I said, all I knew about them was that they were a popular K-Pop band.

She felt around in her pocket, pulling out her smart phone. "You wanna listen?" She asked hopefully.

"Sure!" I smiled, happy that we were finally getting somewhere.

She pressed a few buttons on her phone and soon music started playing out of the speakers.

The song had an upbeat tone had a heavy beat. The members of the band sang fast, and made me want to get up and dance. "This is cool!" I said.

"I know," She said, finally with a smile dancing upon her lips. The song finished, and she paused it before another one could play.

I thought for a moment. "Hey, since it is 2003, do you think we wouldn't be able to use our phones in public?"

"Why is that?" She asked.

"Well, I think people just use flip phones or things like that don't they? So it would be weird if we went around carrying a phone that nobody had heard of before it even hits the market, right?"

Her eyes widened slightly. "I suppose your right. Hey, you're pretty smart, aren't you?"

I laugh. "I try to be. I'm terrible at studying though. I never do it, but somehow, I've managed to pass all of my exams… or I did. Do you think we'll have to take all of our exams again? Even the entry exams?"

Ayako rubbed her arms, and let out a small groan. "I hope not, but probably. Oh well, we already know what all the questions are going to be about, so I think we're going to be fine."

I nodded. "True, that."

She looked at me. "You actually look kind of familiar though. Have I seen you before this…?"

I frowned, and now that I thought about it, she was actually familiar to me as well. "I don't think so…"

"Oh! I know!" She started. "You were in that restaurant before the countdown, weren't you? With your little brother, and your parents, I think."

That was it! "Yes, I was. This is cool, to think that we were in each other's presence before even knowing that we were meant to go on this mission together!"

She laughed, then lowered voice, looking at me seriously. "Did you see that woman, with the unsettling eyes?"

I nodded, recalling her. "Yeah, she was staring at me,"

"And me too."

"Do you think that she knew something about us?" I asked.

"Maybe… Well, I guess we'll just have to see how thing fold out."

"Yeah I guess so." Then I said with a grin gracing my features. "Maybe we'll find _love_!" I said in a sing-song voice. I giggled.

"Oh, I'm always in love." Ayako said. "Just wait, the hottest guy at school tomorrow, and I'll be all over him."

I laughed. "I'll bet."

We spent the rest of the day talking, and getting to know each other and talking until our throats were sore, and we decided to take a nap to wake up fresh tomorrow in the morning.

When I woke up, it was night time. I couldn't believe how long I had spoken to Ayako for. There was nothing else to do, anyway. I got up of the futon, and looked over to the bed where Ayako was still peacefully sleeping, and sneaked over to the small living room, where the television was and turned on the television, grabbing the remote and turning the volume down so it wouldn't wake Ayako.

There this late at night, there were mostly only home shopping channels on. I switched to a channel playing a drama, so I watched that.

It was pretty predictable, but I found myself hooked, my eyes glued to the TV screen. I didn't even notice that Ayako had woken up until she sat onto the couch next to me, her legs crossed in front of her and her hands in her lap.

"Good morning." I said.

"It's night time." She pointed out.

"I know." I replied. "It's past midnight, though."

"I guess so."

I kept on watching the drama, and Ayako was even more interested in it than I was. I looked at her next to me, her eyes were half-lidded from exhaustion and she had sleep in the corners of her eyes, but she was alert, and even yelling at the TV screen when a character did something stupid, which seemed to be every 5 seconds.

Her enthusiasm infected me, and I found myself yelling at the characters as well, quietly, since everyone else in the apartments around us were all probably sleeping.

It was around 4am when the program finished, and I tried going back to sleep, but I couldn't, and neither could Ayako. So we just sat on the couch together until the sun came up and we decided to put our uniforms on. We changed one after the other. Me first, then Ayako. While I was waiting for Ayako to get ready, I went to the toilet, and then as I was washing my hands I realised I didn't have any of my beloved makeup. I sighed, deciding that I could go one day without it, and making a mental note to myself to go to the grocery store after school and buy some, also some pads and tampons, since we forgot to buy those as well, and they were definitely a necessity.

"Hajime told me yesterday that since the school was already expecting us today, we just have to go to the office, and announce that we're here, and they'll tell us what to do."

I nodded. "They've really thought everything out, haven't they."

"They have." Ayako agreed.

I was getting too impatient to wait for school to start in 2 hours, but I had to put up with it. I contemplated actually going to the grocery store just to pass the time, but I decided that I would probably get lost and end up being late for school.

I ran my fingers through my hair because we also didn't have any brushes or combs, and turned on the flat iron and straightened my hair to make it look neater. Ayako didn't have to do anything to her hair because it was pretty short to do much to it anyway.

Running the straightener through my shoulder length brown hair, I studied myself in the mirror. My skin was pale and my cheeks were red, and I could see some pimples forming on my chin. My small brown eyes were wide and alert, although they did have bags under them.

When I had finished, I went to the kitchen and got a glass from a cupboard which had already been stored there beforehand, and had a glass of water. My mouth was dry.

Then after those agonisingly long hours, it was finally time to go to school. Ayako tapped her stone once, as Hajime had told her to do, and not too long after, he materialised in front of us.

"Hey," He said. "Time to show you the way to your school?" He asked.

"Yep." Ayako said. I pulled on the socks and shoes I was wearing yesterday, and went and stood next to Ayako.

"Right. Follow me." Hajime said, walking to the door and trying to reach for the door knob, but he was too short. "Uh, can you open it for me?" He said.

I leaned over and opened it up, and then we took the elevator down to the ground floor, and then we were on our way.

I was happy to find that the school was only a short 10 minutes away from where we lived. When we entered the school, Hajime guided us to the office.

Inside, the office looked very sophisticated. The lady at the office looked up as we walked in. She was plump, with a nice made up face. "Hello," She said. "You must be the Hashimoto girls, am I correct?" She asked. Her voice was strict.

"Ummm…" Ayako said.

"Yes, you are!" Hajime said urgently. I almost freaked out, but then I realised that nobody could see or hear him unless they touched the enchanted object.

"Yes, that's us." I said calmly.

"Right. Well, nice to meet you both. I'm guessing you are twins, since you are in the same year level, but you don't look anything alike."

I nod, playing along. "That's right. We're not identical though, so that would explain the differences."

"Okay." She goes on her computer, and presses the keyboard a few times, and something prints out. She hands two sheets of paper to us, and we take it. "These are your timetables, each based off your electives that you had from your old school. If you need to know where anything is, there is a map printed on the back of that sheet, but also don't hesitate to ask your peers if you need any help. I hope you like it here." She said with a smile.

We smile back, and head outside. Hajime walks beside us. "I'm surprised that she didn't ask more questions, to be honest."

"Yeah, that's true." I said. Some people walked past, but I didn't think that they would think that I was talking to myself, just answering something that Ayako might have said to me. "That's good though, right?"

"Sure." Hajime answered. "Why wouldn't it be?"

We sit down on a bench near the entrance of the school, and look at our time tables. I have a look at my classes.

I had six classes.

8:30-9:20: Japanese

9:30-10:20: Science

10:30-11:20: English

11:30-12:20: Mathematics

12:30-1:20 lunch

1:20-2:10: Social Studies

2:20-3:10: Moral Studies

All in all, I was pretty happy with my classes. I was pretty decent in all of them, except for maybe science, which was my worst subject, and I had four 10 minute recesses which I would use to catch up and do all of my homework.

I looked at Ayako's subject list when we were done. We had almost all the same classes, except for last period: where I had moral studies, she had art.

Then the bell rang for class to start, and I looked down at the class list. On the side where it listed the classes it had a column indicating where all the classrooms were.

I looked on the back of the piece of the paper at the map, finding where we were, and where the classroom was. I had Japanese in class 4-1 and after studying the map, I had a vague idea where it was.

"Come on." I said, standing up, and going inside the school. Inside it was sterile, and looked slightly like a hospital. There were lockers lining the inside of the grounds, but we weren't assigned any lockers yet, so we had to carry our bags inside the class room. It turned out I had a pretty good sense of direction, because I found the classroom quickly. I quietly walked into the room, with Ayako following behind me, and Hajime behind her. A few glances turned towards us, but mostly everyone ingored us. I walked up to the teacher, clearing my throat.

"Um, hi." I said. "We're your-"

The teacher stood up behind her desk, smiling. "Oh! You must be the new girls. Welcome to Daikoko Academy. My name is Sensei Mizuno." She turns to the class, and she introduces us. "These are the two girls that have transferred into our school! They are twin sisters, Hashimoto Ayako and Miu," She turned to face us again. "Now tell us who you are, hmm?"

I speak first, loud and feigning confidence. "My name I Hashimoto Miu." I say, smiling a little.

Ayako is quieter. I can tell that she would rather not be speaking in front of a large crowd. She told me yesterday, that she was very shy. "I'm Hashimoto Ayako." She says quietly.

I don't think anybody could hear her, but since I already said that I was Miu, they could have been able to figure it out.

"Great!" Sensei says, clasping her hands together. "Well, we've brought in some desks for you two, right next to each other, but if you want to move them, don't hesitate. Lord knows how I get so annoyed with my own siblings, but never mind that. Those two spare tables at the back are for you two."

We nod simultaneously, and walk across the other desks to our assigned desks, I let Ayako take the seat next to the window, and we pull our writing books out of our bags. Mine just has a plain black cover, and Ayako chose cuteness over practicableness, and hers was pink with colourful pandas all over the cover.

Sensei started the lesson, and it passed pretty quickly. We were looking at the themes of the text that we were studying, and applying them to an essay that we would have to write soon. I think I did well, this class, especially since Japanese was my favourite subject, and also because I had already read the book and written the essay, and I still got pretty high marks on that. I guess the syllabus was the same at every school in Japan. Sensei was openly impressed when I participated in class, answering the questions that she had asked without fail.

After answering her question about what sub-themes were evident in the text, she raised her eyebrows. "Well, it looks like we have a dedicated student in my class! Finally!"

I was shocked to find that she actually said that out loud, but looking around the classroom, I noticed that all of the other students were hardly even listening to the teacher. They were all leaning around, and lazily talking to their friends. I frowned. Wasn't this supposed to be a prestigious high school? I don't know, I guess I was just thinking that it was supposed to have a higher ratio of intellectuals than lazy students. Oh well. As long as I can do my best in class, I didn't really mind. I actually liked learning, so going to school while we were on this insane mission didn't really bother me.

At my old school, there was a lot of pressure upon the students to get the top marks, but I didn't really care much about that. Although at this school, I wouldn't be surprised if I did turn out to be the top student, judging that if the people in this class were like all the other students in this school.

The rest of the class was just mostly Sensei writing on the chalkboard about the plot, and themes of the text, and then we had to write them down into our own notebooks. It passed on like this uneventfully, until the bell rang for the next lesson, but before that, we had out first 10 minute break for recess.

The next class, I had science. I moved to the next classroom with Ayako by my side. She had ink stains on her hands from where she had been doodling in her excersise book, and I was amazed to see that she was actually really good at drawing.

Ayako was the one to guide me to the science room, and she was bounding up and down, actually excited. I was dreading to go. I hated science class with a passion, because I was terrible at it. I don't understand all these atoms and atomic numbers and atomic mass and whatever else it was. Experiments were nice, I guess, but they were too methodical. I didn't like methods. However, Ayako seemed to like science, because she was telling me about how much she loved it, when we saw _him_.

You know how every school has that one guy that is really good-looking? Well, we found him. He was walking inside the classroom that we just had in English. Ayako had noticed him first, and then she pointed him out to me. He was tall and slim, with fair skin and brown hair.

When he disappeared into the classroom, Ayako turned towards me. "I think I'm in love."

I nodded. "I definitely think that he is hot. But still, he's not my type."

She looked at me incredulously. "Not your _type?_ How can he not be your type? What, don't like pretty boys?" She looked at me sternly, but I could see a crinkle in her eyes.

"You're only half right." I say. I smile. "I don't like _boys."_

She frowned, "So you like men? Older men?"

I laugh. "No, not that either."

I wait for it to sink in. Then a light comes to her eyes. "Ohhhh! You like girls!" She says, her voice rising, she looks at me for confirmation.

"Yep." I say.

"Great! That means I get to have all the guys to myself!" She smiles widely.

I chuckle at her antics, when the guy came out of the classroom again. I nudge her, and she looks at me, then follows my line of sight. She blushes when she notices that he's coming closer, and I turn around, trying to hold in my laughter.

"Come on," I say. "Let's get to class."

She doesn't hear me. Her eyes are locked onto Hottie McHot. He is looking down though, so he doesn't notice and get creeped out or whatever. "Hey… Ayako." I nudge her. She looks back to me, her face as red as a beet.

"What?" She asks.

"Let's go to class.' I reiterated calmly, biting the insides of my cheeks to stop myself from laughing.

"Oh. Right." She says. She begins leading the way, just as Hottie walks past us to our next class, walking briskly, and I realise that we were going to be late. Ayako is leading us, and soon, I realise that we are following him.

"Um… Ayako?" I say in a whisper. "Are we following this guy, or are you taking us to our classroom?"

She looks at me, frowning. "As if I would do that! No, this is the way to our class, I'm sure."

I hoped so. I also hoped that the guy wouldn't turn around and figure out that we were following him. Then we turned into the same class, and if Ayako was red before, this was an entire new colour.

Ayako and the hottie walked into class at the same time, and he got through first, accidentally bumping Ayako into the door frame.

He muttered a quick "Sorry," before the teacher noticed the three of us. Ayako blushed even more, and turned back to me with an expression her face as if to say _he touched me and spoke to me! _I was almost losing all self-control at this point, sucking in my lips, as to stop the laughter from escaping.

"Yagami," The teacher said. "Strange for you to be late."

Finally, a name! Yagami bowed, and said an apology. The teacher looked towards us, and we filed in, saying the same thing that we had said to Sensei Mizuno. Our science teacher smiled and introduced herself as Suzuki.

She introduced us to the class, and I noticed that some of the people from Japanese class were in this one as well. She made us sit down a few seats apart from each other. I let Ayako have the seat closer to the Yagami boy, so she could stare at him without having to position herself awkwardly.

I usually got distracted by my friends in science before, so that might have been a reason about why I was so terrible at it, but I definitely wasn't going to go out of my way in this class than I did in Japanese, because I simply did not care about science, however I was surprised to find that Ayako excelled at it. And so did Yagami. We were learning something about forensics something or other, and Ayako raised her hand for every question, answering them all correctly when she was picked on by the teacher. It appeared that almost every student slacked off at this school. The only other person who didn't slack, from what I could tell, was Yagami.

I wasn't really paying attention to what the teacher was saying, only focused on Ayako. I looked at Yagami, and noticed that he was looking at her from the corner of his eye. The corners of my lips twisted into a smile.

"Hey," A voice whispered in my direction. "What're you smiling about, huh?"

I looked to the direction of the voice, and a guy with short black hair gazed at me. He was sitting in the table right next to me, and I vaguely recalled him my Japanese class. "Hmm? Nothin'" I whispered back. I opened my book, as Suzuki had told us to do, and began writing down what she was writing on the board. She then told us to get out our textbooks and read the pages from 171-172.

Damn it. I knew we were forgetting something. I raised my hand, and waited until she called on me. "Um, sorry miss, it was a bit late notice when we were told that we were coming here, so we didn't have enough time to purchase our textbooks…"

I heard her give a sigh. "The person on the right side of Ayako and Miu please share you're book." She looked at us sternly. "I'm expecting you to get your own textbooks by the end of the week, am I clear?"

I nod. Great… she was one of _those _teachers. The kind who shove the blame onto you, even when you couldn't control what had happened. If she knew that I was the person who was going to stop the world from going to shit… it was then that I realised that Hajime had gone missing. Damn it. He probably had something else to attend to.

I turned to the person who was supposed to be sharing his textbook with me, and he had moved his table closer to mine, so they were touching. "Hey." He said. "I'm Arakaki Ren. Nice to meet you."

I nodded. "You too." I look down at the textbook, and begin reading the page about things I don't understand, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to try.

"So, why'd you move here for?" He asked. He hadn't even picked up a pen.

Thankfully, I had already thought up a cover story. "My dad's job makes him move around a lot, so we had to come here."

He nodded, actually seeming interested. "Oh, nice. Where were you from originally?"

I thought about it, then said the first thing that came to my head. "Kyoto."

His eyes widened. "You've come a long way then."

I shrug. "I suppose so."

I write down the questions on the opposite page even though I hadn't finished reading the page.

At the end of the day, it's evident that I am terrible at science, since I had gotten every single answer wrong, and that Ayako was the genius, as she had all of them right. Apparently, her and Yagami were now competing for the top science student, and she was doing all that she could to beat him. Something I like about Ayako was her competitive streak when it came to something that she liked. She would not let anyone stop her from being the best.

The rest of the day wasn't really all the noteworthy. After recess, we had English, which I had with Ayako and Yagami. I excelled at that, but Ayako did even better than everyone in the whole class, and it quickly came apparent to me, that in all of his classes, Yagami was the best, but it soon turned out that he was going to have some competition in Ayako and I. Ayako had spent four years in Australia, so her English skills were perfect. She was also born in the Philipines, so she was fluent in that as well, but we wouldn't tell anyone that, since we were supposed to be twin sisters, and it would be weird if one of us was born in Japan and the other wasn't.

After the class had ended, our teacher had considered her in getting to drop the class, but she decided not to, admitting that her English skills weren't perfect, and she still needed to perfect it. I was sitting on top of the table waiting for her to finish, when Yagami came in, just as she was admitting that she wasn't perfect. He had heard her.

"What do you mean that you're not perfect?" He asked, walking in, and going to his desk next to the window, and picking up something that he must have left behind: a pen. "You're better than even me at English, and I'd hate to say it, even at science."

He waited for Ayako to say something, like 'thanks.' But it never came. He shrugged, and left. I looked at her, and noticed that she was hiding her face with her hair, but I could see her neck, which was slowly turning red. I leapt off the desk, and took her by the wrist and led her outside. I snuck a quick glance. Our teacher had a completely bemused expression on his face… poor guy. Couldn't understand the woes of the heart.

I look at Ayako and I laugh. Her face is red, and she looked like she's stopped breathing. She's biting her lip, and looking like she's either going to cry or burst out in laughter. Except that's me: bursting out in laughter.

She looks at me, and smiles as well, but it's not too long after she gets annoyed at me and smacks me upside the head. "Stop that." She orders me.

I look down on her and stop laughing, amazed that a person of her small stature could even reach up and hit me.

"Thank you." She says exasperatedly.

The rest of the week passed uneventfully as well. There were no more interactions between Ayako and her crush, and we had both made friends fast, but our thoughts were still on our goal: to find the Death Note.

November 23rd 2003

The entire week had consisted of us studying for the National Practice Entry Exams, which if it was the real deal, would help enlist us to get into a university, not necessarily the one we wanted to go to, but the one which would fit with our skill levels, but if we got high enough marks, we would put our preferences down, indicating which university that we wanted to get in to.

Ayako and I had already taken the test before we left, so we figured that the test was going to be a breeze, but she still studied anyway. I didn't, as I mentioned: I hated studying. I preferred learning.

We were in the last period of class, and we were on red alert. Toshigami and Hajime had come to us with serious expressions and told us that today would be the day of the first recording of a Death Note hitting the earth in this time frame.

We were sitting in English, the last period of the day. We were sitting apart from each other. But still next to the window, just in case a Death Note would happen to fall to the ground outside, which I highly doubted, but still.

I was looking at the teacher, but in the corner of my eye I could still see outside. I was sitting to seats down from the front, with Ren sitting behind me, and behind him, was Yagami, which I found out that his first name Light. I thought it was a weird name. Behind him, was Ayako, and I hoped that she would focus on the task at hand, rather than Yagami's backside.

From what I could tell, there was no Death Note sightings anywhere around us, but when the bell rang to go home, I couldn't find Ayako anywhere, so I figured that something had happened. I came out of the classroom, chasing after Ren, I asked if he had seen Ayako anywhere.

"Sure, I saw her run outside, but I stopped to talk to her for a bit, but she left in a hurry. Weird, right? You know, you girls are absolutely nothing alike."

I nodded. "Right. Well, I gotta go. Bye!"

I ran outside, not before hearing Ren say, "Well, except for that. That's what she said to me, as well."

I ignored him. Ayako must have seen something. I walked past all the classrooms, and raced outside, looking around for her. Then I found her, and she was racing towards a small section of grass, with small benches around. I saw her run up, but then stop in her tracks.

She hadn't seen me, but I could see what she was looking at. Yagami was there, and he had picked up a small black notebook. He began leafing through the pages, and I could see some kind of writing on the front and back of the book. He dropped it, and it fell back to the ground. I let out a breath that I hadn't realised I'd been holding in. He began walking away, and Ayako turned around started to walk away, to make it look like she hadn't been following him. I was going to walk up to her, when I noticed that Yagami had turned back.

Oh no. Ayako was still walking, she hadn't seen it. He picked up the notebook, and shoved it in his back pack.

Shit. I ran up to Ayako, avoiding Yagami. I tapped her on the shoulder, she gave a start and turned around, a hand clasping her chest.

I didn't wait for her to give me a greeting. "He has it." I say quickly. She looks at me. "I saw him put it down too, but he picked it up again." I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Light Yagami has the Death Note."

Her face fell.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: I don't own Death note, or the succeeding lyrics.**

_Hold yourself a little higher_

_Bridge that gap just further_

_And all your being_

_I'd ask you to give it up_

London Grammar/**Shyer**

Ayako's P.O.V

November 23rd 2003

When Miu told me that Light had the Death Note, she immediately got the idea to follow him home, and try to get me to persuade him that the notebook was mine, so he would give it back to me. I didn't think it would work. Light was too smart to believe that someone like me would own a notebook with 'death note' emblazoned on the front, but I couldn't think of anything better, so I decided to go through with it.

"Hey," I said loudly, so that Light who was walking a couple of metres away from could hear me. "I can't find my notebook." I began overdramatically looking through my school bag, making a lot of noise.

"_You're being too obvious!" _Miu hissed.

"_No I'm not." _I whispered back.

Light turned his head slightly, looking at us from the corner of his eye.

I decided to add a description. "Maybe you accidentally put it into your bag, Miu. It's black and has some English words on it. Probably some weird English phrase: Death Note."

I thought I head a faint 'oh' coming from Light's direction. He was rummaging through his backpack and drew out the notebook. He turned around and walked towards us.

"Is this what you're looking for? I found it on the ground when school finished."

I looked at him, then looked back down, feeling heat rush to my cheeks. Goddamnit, why did he have to be so attractive. It wasn't fair that I had to freeze up whenever a handsome guy spoke to me.

"Y-yes!" I said, holding my hands out in front of me, so he could give it back.

I was holding my hands out like that for several seconds, but he hadn't given it to me. I looked back up, frowning.

"Don't you girls walk the opposite way?" His eyes were narrowed. He was suspicious.

Miu cut in. I discovered very quickly in my time with her that she was superb at thinking up cover stories.

"We were catching the train to Akishima."

He shoves one of his hands in his pockets. "Right."

We keep on walking, and I'm sort of reaching for the notebook, but drawing my hand back awkwardly, because I'm too scared to ask for it because hot boys are frightening.

Thankfully Miu notices. "So… can we have the notebook back?"

Light makes to give it to them, but then he pauses. "You don't seem like the kind of person who would use a death note like this…" He reads off the back, "The human whose name is written in this note shall die…"

He is staring at me intently, into my eyes as if he is trying to draw out any falsities I might say. He knew that I was good at English, so I couldn't pass it off as not knowing what it said. "It was a gift." I say quietly. "From my uh… weird uncle."

Miu looks at me, then turns back to Light with a smile on her face. "Yeah, he was r_eally _weird, he even had a strange mole… somewhere… as well. Hey, you know, I think Ayako has a mole just like him!"

I look at her wide eyed, choking on my breath, and coughs attack my body. Why did she have to say that in front of _Light? _Why would she even say something like that at all!

I cover my mouth with my hand, and I keep coughing, then I feel a hand slap me on my back and I freeze.

I look up at Light, who's hand is returning to his pocket. My coughs have stopped, but I looked up at Light wide eyed. I had recoiled uncomfortably under Light's touch, and he was looking at me and frowning.

"Did I do something wrong?" He asked.

"O-oh, no… I just don't like to be touched…" I look back to the ground.

Light's hand goes to back of his neck, and he rubs it, embarrassed. "Oh. I understand, sorry."

"That's okay." Hopefully he had forgotten about Miu's comment, but I hadn't. I glared at her, and she gave me a sheepish smile.

Light apparently was still interrogating us about the notebook. "If this is yours, why was it falling through the air near the classroom on the opposite side of classroom 3-1, and you were sitting right behind me?"

I thought about that, thinking of a cover story. "I must have left it in art class. Some idiot probably thought that it would have been funny to throw it out of the window."

He looks through the notebook. "If it's for your art class, wouldn't it have… I don't know, your drawings or something in there? It's all blank."

I smile, I'm getting good at this cover story thing. "Well," I say, my voice rising a bit. I even look at Light's face, even though I still blush when I notice that his light brown eyes are locked onto my features. "I'm not going to use lined paper for drawing, am I? I use it for notes and theory. So, if we're done here, can I have my notebook back now?" I was really getting into this. I never knew that I was such a good liar. My hand is out, and I wait for him to return the death note to me.

I take a glance at Miu, and she looks impressed. I look back to Light, urging him to give me the notebook with my eyes.

He reluctantly shoves it into my hands.

We keep on walking. Then we pass the train station.

"Well," Miu says. "Time to go."

We walk to the station, me clasping the notebook in my grip.

"Bye." I mutter to Light.

He stops walking. "Hold on, let me stay with you until the train comes. It's dangerous for two young girls to be alone at this time."

I think its sweet that he cares, knowing that we just stopped him from becoming Kira, but we weren't going to the train station at all. As soon as we had acquired the Death Note, we were supposed to get in contact with Hajime and Toshigami, and let them deal with it.

"Oh, no… you don't have to do that-" I say.

Miu interrupted me, crossing her arms defensively. "That's nice, but we can look after ourselves." She slowly starts to walk away, but not before muttering something under her breath about boys 'white-knighting' all the time, whatever that meant. "Come on, Ayako."

I looked apologetically at Light.

"Please, I insist." He says, looking at me.

I open my mouth, but Miu jumps in again. She looks ferociously at Light. "Look, I just told you. _No_."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want you to."

Light frowns, he mimics her stance. His legs shoulder-width apart, and his arms crossed. They stare each other down. Miu almost reaches his chin. "Why not?" Light asks hardly.

She didn't look away. "I just told you. We can look after ourselves. Why do girls have to have a guy come along with them just to make sure that something dangerous doesn't happen to them? It's bullshit, and like I said, we can look after ourselves." She insinuated that last part, to make sure that he would get it.

Light looked away. "Fine."

A satisfied smirk graced Miu's features, and she took me by my wrist, dragging me into the station.

"Bye…" I said to Light, but he was already walking away. I thought I could see his jaw move, like he was saying something, but I couldn't hear anything.

Miu dragged me into the train station, and then we sat down at a bench, just in case Light would come looking back to see if we were actually here, which I doubted. I took out my stone from the jeans pocket, and Miu retrieved her toy firework from her school bag which she had placed between her legs.

"We did it." I said to Miu, holding my stone in one hand, and the death note in the other. "We actually did it."

Miu looked at me, beaming. "That was actually easier than I expected."

I nodded, I hovered my hand over the summoning stone. I looked at Miu for confirmation. "Ready?" I asked.

She nodded, and we tapped our summoners at the same time.

In a second, Toshigami and Hajime were in front of us. I presented the notebook to them.

"You did it?" Hajime asked incredulously.

"Yeah." Miu says.

"So what do we do with it now?" I ask.

There is a breeze that blows my fringe into my eyes, and brush it out of the way, my eyes stinging. The train that we would have caught if we were actually catching the train arrived. Many people filed out of the train, and few entered.

"We destroy it." Toshigami says.

I nod, leaning against the back rest of the bench.

Then I hear a voice that sent chills down my spine.

"Destroy what?" The cold voice asks. "Not my notebook, surely?"

A ghastly humanoid creature hovers in the air in front of us. My face blanches, and Miu's goes slack.

The _kami _look up, Toshigami looks slightly disgruntled, and Hajime has balled up his fists.

"Ryuk." He says coldly.

"Eh?" The floating shinigami says. "Am I supposed to know who you are?"

Hajime scoffed. "I'm the god of crossroads and pathways! If you didn't know about me before, you're going to soon!" He said aggressively, rolling up his imaginary sleeves and flexing his imaginary muscles.

"That's cool." Ryuk said, disinterested. He looked at Toshigami. "Come on, what'd you have to ruin my fun for?" His face was ever-smiling, but you could hear a pout In his voice.

"Trust me," Toshigami rumbled. "It definitely would not be fun if you carried through with your plans."

Ryuk floated down to the ground. "Hmm, and what do you mean by that?" He turned his fish-like eyes onto us, and noticed that I was holding the death note. His smile unsettled me, I couldn't look at him without feeling like I was going to explode into a million pieces.

"More than half of the shinigami's notebooks will be confiscated because of your actions."

Ryuk slowly turned back to Toshigami. "Oh, by who?"

"Amaratesu declared it, we have to carry out her words."

"Oh, _her_ law." He said bitterly. He looked down at Hajime distastefully, like he was something on the back of his shoe. He looked back at Toshigami. "You know, I don't understand why your hanging out with this _chimata."_

Hajime frowned, and looked down at the ground. Typically, I think, he would have tried to start a fight, but I think that Ryuk had offended him, and well, I got offended too. He was acting like a bully.

I stood up, and Ryuk turned to me. My knees buckled at the sight of the shinigami, who could easily kill me with a word. I swallowed, and spat out before I could lose my courage: "You shouldn't be saying such bad things about other people." I said quietly.

I was holding the death note in my hand at my side. I don't think he heard what I said, but Miu did, and she grasped my wrist to make me sit down again. This monster was taller than even Miu, who was extremely tall, and I had to tilt my head up fully to get a good look at him. I could tell that he was taller than the shelter of the bench, even, but I stared him down, like Miu had done to Light.

He only had eyes for his death note. "Right, so can I have it back?" He comes closer to me, and reaches for the death note, but before he can, I hide it behind my back.

"I'm guessing that's a no. You know," He says, turning back to Toshigami, "I was going to let whoever found the death note use it for about a week without letting them know about my presence, just to see what would happen, but now that I've found out that you've intercepted my plans, and you're going to destroy it, none the less… you might as well give it back. I'll make sure it gets back home safely."

Hajime jumps in. "Yeah, and how do we know that you won't just give it to someone else? Or even worse, back to Yagami?"

Ryuk frowned. "Yagami? Who's that? The guy that had the death note before those girls took it off him? No way would I drop it anywhere near him. That guy looks so uptight! He'd probably just use it for studying, or something."

Knowing that Light would have become Kira, I laughed bitterly. "You'd be surprised." I say.

He looked back at me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing." I sigh. He looks at me strangely, and his gaze is just too intense. I look down at the ground.

He makes a sound of interest. "Okay, whatever." He says quickly. His hand hovered to his hip, and back down to his side. I look back up to him. Strangely, he seemed eager about something.

"Whatever," He begins to float up in there air.

"Where are you going?" Toshigami asked.

"Well, I can tell that it's a lost cause, trying to get the death note off of you, so I'm just going to be on my way…" Without another word, he grew wings out of his back, and took off into the skies.

Hajime looked worried. "Did that seem a bit too… easy to you?" He looked up at Ryuk, who was now a speck among the white clouds against the azure sky.

"Quite so." Toshigami said. "I don't expect that we're done here."

"What do you mean?" Miu asked. I realised that was the first time she had spoken since the appearance of Ryuk. She was still ashen faced.

"We shall see." Toshigami said calmly. "Or maybe he just admitted defeat. Shinigami are a lazy bunch, after all."

"Well, I hope it's the latter." I said.

"Me, too." Hajime said.

I held out the death note. "What do we do with this now?"

"Bury it?" Miu suggested.

Toshigami shook his head. "No, if we bury it, there is still the chance that someone could find it. We have to burn it."

I nod. "Great. Who has a lighter?"

It turned out that no one possessed a lighter, so we had to walk all the way back to the supermarket to buy one.

I rolled the small blue lighter in the palm of my hand. Miu set the death note on the ground, and I flicked the lighter. I did it slowly, kneeling down onto the ground close to the notebook, and lighting a corner of the death note. It caught fire quickly, and I was tempted to play with the flames like I would a candle. The smoke filtered through the air, grey ashy smoke.

I stood up, watching the fire until the death note was completely disintegrated. I stomped out any lingering sparks with my boot.

I looked to Miu, and she looked back at me. She pursed her lips, and place her hands on her hips. Her dark brown hair fell in front of her face, framing her features. A strand of her hair poked her narrow chin, and she brushed it away with her fingers.

"So what now?" She asked. "We go home?"

Toshigami and Hajime were standing a little ways behind us. The open air around us was cool, and there was barely any wind. All around me I could see was green. Green grass, green leaves, soft green moss climbing over rocks and tree trunks. The forest was calm.

"I think so." I said.

We turned around and walked over to the ancient _kami._

"We're finished." We said simultaneously.

I clutched my head, as I looked at Hajime, and he stared directly back into my eyes. The headache ran through my head, a hundred knives stabbing at my conscience. I forced my eyes open and see the world changing in front of me, melting away into darkness. We are floating higher and higher into the sky, although it still feels like my feet are on solid ground. I can't move my body around, but I can feel Miu's presence next to me. I don't know where Hajime and Toshigami are, though.

Then I'm in the familiar blackness. The world has finished shifting beneath our feet, and we are standing, for only a second. I think I can see a glimpse of Toshigami somewhere in the darkness, but as soon as I see his silhouette, we are already going home.

Shibuya Crossing, January 1st 2015

I land on my knees, pain shooting through my legs. Miu lands on her knees as well, and then falls onto her side as she writhes around in the dirt in pain.

We have landed just outside of the crossing, near the curb where there is a small decorative garden behind the footpath. Thankfully, the soft garden bed had dulled our fall, so it didn't hurt so much. The only thing was that our legs were covered in dirt, and as for Miu's case, her entire body.

I stood up. "Miu, stop that. You're getting yourself dirty."

Miu stopped. She was lying chest down on the dirt. "Damn." She muttered.

I looked around. "I think we're home."

Miu looked around, standing up. "Everything still looks exactly the same."

I nodded. "It does… but it is New Years, so it's not that uncommon for people to go to the crossing, anyway. But look," I said, pointing at the gargantuan screen which advertised products and breaking news down the bottom, "There's no mention of Kira. I think we did it!"

Then I feel a vibrating in my pocket. I dig my hand in and pull out my phone. Shining on the screen was my mother. I answered the phone.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Ayako, where are you?" She asked harshly. "It was like you were here one moment and gone the next. Please don't sneak away from me, especially in these large crowds."

"I know mother. I'm sorry, I just found one of my friends from school. Where are you?"

I looked at Miu, and I realised that she had her phone out and typing rapidly on it. She was probably getting some worried texts from her family.

"We're right in the middle of the crowd, I think. Don't worry about it, you can spend time with your friend and I'll call you until it's time to leave. Which friend is it?"

"Oh, you won't know her. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"Okay. Bye, remember to keep your phone on!" She demanded.

"I will, bye!" I said, removing my phone from my ear, and hanging up.

I look back to Miu, who is still busy on her phone.

"It's weird how we've changed the world, but it doesn't seem different at all."

Miu had finished with her phone, and put it in her back pocket. She picked her bag off the ground. "I know. It's weird, and we'll have been the only people who'd have known about Kira."

I nod, shoving my hands in my pockets. I feel the summoner stone in my pocket. I be careful not to tap it, so as to not summon Hajime.

We start walking off into the crowd. We have a smile on our faces. To think that we had actually succeeded in bringing down Kira, someone who would have been a figure of destruction in everyone's minds if we had not stopped him…

We had rewritten time ourselves, and no one would have been the wiser, apart from Miu and I. And of course the _kami_ watching over the earth.

I looked at Miu. It was weird, that only a week ago I did not even know her at all, but we were brought together because we were the only people who could be successful in a seemingly impossible task, but in a week, we had became fast friends. We had spoken about each other, playing 20 questions, and things like that, and now I felt like I knew her entire personality, and she knew mine.

We had jumped into the crowd, partying with the other people in there, until it was time to go home.

But I couldn't shake the feeling of unease.

When I woke up in the morning, it felt like everything that had happened had been a dream. A very strange, very weird dream.

I walked out into the living room, turning on the television, and I was _certain_ that it had been a dream, because right there on the screen, was a program about Kira. It was the first of January, the first day of the new year, and there was a program on Sakura TV about Kira.

The news reporters were discussing Kira to a non-Kira supporter and a Kira supporter, although it was evident that he was dead, another thing was obvious:

We hadn't achieved anything.

I went back into my room. I had put my phone on charge for the entire night, since when we were back in time, they didn't make chargers for our particular model of phone, so we had to turn it off all the time unless we absolutely had to use it. I unplug the charger and dialled in Miu's number. I didn't have to worry about waking her up, since she always woke up early in the morning, even if she went to sleep late. She couldn't help it, she had told me.

Her phone rang a few times, and she answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey. It's Ayako. Um, I don't really know how to put this… You know how we supposedly defeated Kira… That's supposed to make it so that he never existed, right?"

Miu was silent for a time. I heard some footsteps in the background, and a noise like roaring. Maybe it was her TV. I wondered what she was doing before I called her. "Yeah… that's how it should be." She said hesitantly.

"Well then, I don't think we succeeded at all."

"How do you mean?" Miu asked slowly.

"Sakura TV is still showing programs about Kira." Sakura TV was the channel that had broadcasted the coming of Kira. They now had become what I liked to call 'Kira's disciples.' They had the most Kira worshippers in Japan watching their programs, and whether the people who worked for Sakura TV agreed with Kira's methods was unknown. They just blasted whatever they could find about Kira for ratings.

"Shit." Miu said. "What do we do now?"

"I don't know… talk to Hajime and Toshigami, I guess. Ask for their help."

"Yeah. They should know what to do." Miu said distractedly. "Do you want to meet up and do it, or should we just do it now?"

"Let's do it now, the less time we waste, the better."

"Okay." Miu said. She hung up.

I had placed my summoner stone on my bedside table when he came home from Shibuya. Flesh met rock, and in a few seconds, Hajime was in front of me.

I sit down on my bed, and straighten out my pyjamas. Just a black tank top and shorts.

"What is it?" Hajime asks, looking at me. I put a finger to my lips, indicating that I can't talk loudly because my family would wonder why I would be talking to myself alone in my room.

"I don't think that we've eradicated Kira." She said in a whisper.

Hajime's eyes widened. "Why'd you say that? We destroyed the death note, didn't we?"

I nod, "Yes we did, but look." I opened my door and went outside to the living room where the program was still playing. It now had a headline, 'A new year, anew Kira."

"Anew Kira? Humans are so funny." Then his expression turned serious. "The shinigami Ryuk was acting oddly when we wouldn't give up the death note… Maybe he had something else planned. Hold on. I need to check something over with the elders."

He dematerialised.

Great.

My mother poked her head through the door. "Who are you talking to?"

I turned to her. "Oh… no one. Don't worry about it."

I go back into my room, and pick up my phone to text Miu if Toshigami had said anything.

There isn't a reply for a while, then my phone vibrates.

I unlock my phone and read the message.

_I don't know what's going on, but I think Toshigami knows something. I'll tell you if I find anything out._

Hajime comes back just as I finish reading the message. He starts pacing around the room, looking distressed.

"We failed." He says. "Ryuk had another notebook which he must have given to Kira, or Yagami. Whatever. The main thing is that we didn't succeed in stopping him."

I nod slowly, my heart dropping. "Right, I sort of figured that. Now what happens?"

He stops pacing and looks up at me. He stands, his pointy toes stabbing into my carpet. "We try again. I've communicated with Toshigami-"

"I thought he was with Miu."

"He is, we _kami _have many ways of communicating. Anyway, I've spoken to him, and we decided to explain things in Limbo. Come on."

I nod, "Alright, let me just get some things beforehand."

Hajime huffs, but lets me. "Be quick!" He warns.

I nod, stuffing my phone and my phone charger in a bag. I take my sketchbooks and some stationary. I look around for anything else I might need to take, but I can't think of any. Headphones, maybe?

Hajime thought I was being stupid, why would I take things along with me. You were on an important mission, not going on a holiday! But honestly in my time in 2003 it was incredibly boring, and I needed my entertainment. There was only so long you could watch tv for, after all.

"Alright," Hajime demanded, clapping his hands impatiently. "Time to go!"

With those words, we were in Limbo.

Miu and Toshigami were already there. It was strange, in Limbo, everywhere aroung me was darkness, except for the living organisms. It seemed that living and breathing people were illuminated like you had a spotlight on them.

"About time." Miu mutters.

I swing my backpack onto my back, noticing that Miu had her own. She probably had the same idea that I did, to bring as much methods of entertainment as you could.

I walk over to Miu, who doesn't move at all, although I can see her feet twitching in her heeled white sandals, like she was about to fall over, but doing whatever she could do to stop it. Her hands were balled in fists by her side.

She looks at me from the corner of her eye, but then it flickers back onto Toshigami, who has stood between us. Hajime is standing beside me.

"We're going to send you back, obviously." Toshigami says. "Before Light Yagami makes his first kill with the notebook. As you both should know by now, Ryuk had another notebook that we were not aware of, and decided to drop it in front of Yagami again. We suspect that he only did this because of the comment that you made, Ayako, when the shinigami claimed that he would not give another notebook to Yagami, because he most likely would not use it. Do you remember what you replied to that."

My mouth went dry. I nodded. "You'd be surprised." I recited.

"That's right. I'm not going to scold you for that, I'm not your parent, and who knows what Ryuk might have done if not for that comment, for all we know, he could have given the death note to someone even worse than Light Yagami. But our task at hand now is to stop Light from using the notebook. We're going to send you a few moments before Light makes his first kill. You have to stop him from ever making that kill. Am I clear?"

I think a moment before nodding. Couldn't there be a better way to do this? I couldn't think of any at the moment. It seemed like this would be the best way. If any of us thought of anything, a better plan, we would no doubt go through with it, but for now, this was the only way we knew. It's going to be hard, but I say yes.

We are leaving Limbo again. The etherealness leaving us behind, and I can no longer feel the _kami's _presence. We have been sent in front of a house. There is a car in the driveway, and the lights in the house are on.

Miu pulls me to the side, we walk up and down the footpath. The sun is disappearing beneath the clouds and the sky had turned pink.

"We need to figure out a plan," She says.

I shrug.

"How about this, we knock on their door, say that we're… door knockers for some lighting company, sneak into Yagami's room, pretend to check out his lights, then steal his death note?"

I frown. "That's a bit suspicious though, right? We're a lighting company, and we go into _Light's _room? And what if we see Light? I don't think that plan would work."

Miu huffs and crosses her arms. "Whatever. What do you suggest to do?"

"I don't know. Sneak into his room? Tell him that he's going to make a very big mistake if he uses the death note?"

"Forcibly take it off him if he refuses?" Miu suggests.

I sigh. "If we must, but you're doing the fighting."

She smirks. "If we must."

We decided that my plan was the better one. The only thing left was to figure out how to sneak in his room.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Ayako's P.O.V**_

_I keep the wolf from the door_

_But he calls me up_

_Calls me on the phone_

_Tells me all the ways that he's gonna mess me up_

Radiohead/_**A Wolf at the Door**_

November 27th 2003

The way it seemed to me, Light lived in a mansion. From the outside, his house was humongous. It was double story, had a balcony and a gate surrounding it. In the front yard, his trees grew large and prosperous. The lights were on in the bottom floor, and I could see a dim light filtering through the window right in top floor facing towards us.

I gripped the ladder closer to my body as we snuck between the gates, crouching low against the brick fence just in case someone saw us. Miu and I were dressed in black leggings and black baggy shirts. We had on completely black converses, and beanies. To put it shortly, we were dressed like thieves, which; if we were successful, that is what we would be at the end of this night.

We had scouted Light's house the day before, when Toshigami teleported us back to 2003. We had come up with a plan to retrieve the new death note. Which would occur with me creating some kind of loud noise outside of the Yagami household, and while they would all come rushing downstairs to see what was going on, Miu would climb upstairs and steal the death note from Light's room, where he would be keeping it hidden from his family,

We sneaked across the damp green grass and next to the foundation for the balcony. With a grunt, I positioned the ladder up against the wall.

In Miu's hands was a cardboard box full of empty glass bottles. With those bottles, I would smash them on the pavement outside, which would cause a distraction to which Light would sure come out of his room to see what he was going on. After studying him for a while, I knew that he spent most of his time in his room studying, only going out of his room to use the bathroom, or if any member of his family wanted him outside. I even found that he ate in his room as well.

I took the box from Miu, and she started climbing up the ladder. I watched her from underneath, spotting her in case she slips, but thankfully she doesn't and she is up the top. She hoisted her arms over the top of the railing of the balcony, and pushed her body up, her feet wedged in between the gaps in the railing, and she puts one leg over the side, like she is riding a horse, and then pulls her other leg over, and she is standing in front of light's window in front of his balcony.

I could tell that his blinds were not drawn, and Miu ducked to the side, peeking into Light's room. She turned back to me, waving her hand in a horizontal motion, telling me to go and cause my distraction.

I adjusted the box of glass bottles so it fits easier in my arms, the bottles clinking as I do so, and walked out into the drive way of their house. I picked up the first glass bottle, and smash it on the hard concrete, which shattered against the ground. I held three more and smashed those against the ground as well, making a much satisfying sound.

I paused for a moment, dropped another bottle, then I screamed a shrill, bloodcurdling scream.

Lights turned on in the houses around me, and I ran back into the footpath. I wouldn't go and hide though. Sure enough, people from the houses neighbouring had come outside. I blended into the crowd, as if I was looking to see what had happened.

The door opened of the Yagami household, and I adjust the beanie on my head. I look up to the window, and I can't see Miu anywhere. Miu was in.

Who I guessed was Light's father stepped out. He had one hand on his jeans pocket. Two other people were standing in the door way, an older woman and a young girl. Light's mother and sister.

I peeked past Light's family, and saw a shadow coming from the steps. Light appeared in between his mother and sister.

"What's going on?" He asked, running towards his father. His eyes scan the crowd, and I purse my lips. His eyes scanned right past my head, not recognising me. His eyes returned to the broken glass bottles on the ground. His father who had been bending down, lifted up a glass shard up to the light coming from the street lamp.

He dropped the glass, and stands back up, sighing. "It's nothing. Probably just a stupid prank. Everybody, go back to your homes. There is no danger here."

There were sounds of disgruntled-ness from the crowd, a part of me wondered whether the people actually wanted something tragic to have happened here, the crowd slowly shuffles back to their homes. I walked behind a family whose house is in the dark, and then I blend into the shadows, and disappeared.

I could still see his house clearly from this angle. Light looked at the cardboard box that I left behind, and dragged it behind him into the house. His father got the other end, and the lifted it up. I looked up to Light's window, and Miu is already climbing down. The front door shut, and I ran out to Miu.

"Do you have it?" I asked.

She held it up for me to see. "Yep! And I swapped it with one that looked identical. He won't suspect a thing."

We had started to walk quickly away now. "That was the craziest thing I had ever done." I said.

She laughed. "Come one, we need to take the bus home, and it arrives in 15. Don't want to miss it."

I smiled, the adrenaline and exhilaration rushing through me that we actually did something like this and didn't get caught. We start walking to the bus stop, and I look back at Light's house, into his room.

A lump rose in throat, because there, staring directly at us was Light Yagami.

"_Shit." _I say, I turn back just as I see Light smile at us.

"What is it?" Miu asked.

"He's seen us. Crap." I take a deep breath, as we keep walking.

"Oh no." She said. "He probably won't even recognise us, after all it's dark and were in black. He doesn't even know what we've done."

I nod, although her words don't comfort me in the slightest. We walk to the bus stop in anxious silence, but as the bus goes on, and the more distance put between us and Light, the more confident we had become.

November 28th 2003

We're back at school. Ever since we had come back to 2003, we had not been back at school for four days. Our friends had gotten worried.

When we had walked through the door to the Science classroom, Miu's friend Ren rushed up to her, clasping her hands in his dramatically. She took a step backwards, looking completely bemused.

"Where have you been?" He exclaimed, "So many things have happened since you were away!"

I looked at Miu and tried to refrain from laughing, her eyes had gotten wide and her face was red, like she had stopped breathing. Actually, I think she _had _stopped breathing. I nudged her, laughing.

"We went to Akishima for a couple of days." I spoke for her, moving us out of the doorway so other people could get in.

At that moment, Light came through the door, the teacher wasn't in the room yet, so we just let ourselves in. I looked at him as he looked at me. I turned away. His eyes were gleaming, and his smile seemed fake. He definitely knew what we had done.

Ren removed his hands from Miu's, and slowly I could see colour return to her face. Ren had a grin plastered on his features.

Throughout the day, he didn't speak to us at all, to tell us that he knew that we stole his death note (or at least that was what I suspected.) We wouldn't talk to him either, and earlier on that day, Miu and I had decided that if he asked us about anything, we would strongly deny it.

After school, Ren had gotten us and his other friends all together to go for a night out in town. Some of his friends opted out, saying that they had to go to cram school, and he shrugged.

Normally, I would have gone to cram school as well, but I wasn't here under normal circumstances. My only purpose was to stop Kira, and if he knew that we had stolen the death note, we were in trouble.

Then it came to my mind that Light would be in cram school tonight as well. If we followed him to cram school, we would be able to find out what he was planning to do, because it was evident that he was planning something, and I didn't just mean about Kira, I meant about Miu and I.

When Ren asked us to go out after school, I said that we would think about it before Miu could get a word in, then I pulled her aside and told her about my plan.

"Light will be at cram school tonight." I said.

"Yeah, so?" Miu crossed her arms.

"So, if we go there, we'll be able to find out if he has anything else planned out."

Miu's hands went to her hips. "He won't have anything else planned."

"How do you know?"

"He doesn't have the death note. He can't do anything without it."

I nod. "I know, but still. At least one of us have to go, just in case."

She nods, "Okay, I understand. You can go and follow Light, and I'll go with Ren."

I frown, shaking my head. "No, I want you to go instead of me."

"Why?"

"He won't suspect you because he doesn't know for sure that it was you who came along with me. He only saw my face, when we were leaving, and if he tries to do anything, you come with great plans by yourself, and you'll stop him if you needs to."

She nods. "Okay, I get it. I'll go, and you'll have fun with Ren."

I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not. I don't say anything. We go back to Ren, and tell him that Miu has to go to cram school as well, but I'll be coming along.

"Cool!" He says. "It's going to be awesome. We're going to the arcade and everything!"

I saw Miu pout. I patted her back sympathetically.

I changed out of my school uniform, now dressed in a pair of blue skinny jeans, and a pink blouse with a peter pan collar. I had a black jacket buttoned up over that, since it looked like it was going to rain.

I said bye to Ayako at the school. She had her hair tied up, but still with her fringe swooping out, and some strands of hair framing her jaw line. She was wearing a long black trench coat and blue jeans like mine as well as a plain black singlet. She held her books in her arm as she went inside.

The bus door shut, and we were on our way to the arcade. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and put in my headphones, listening to some music. I couldn't let anyone here listen to my music, since it was all recent music, and it would be suspicious if anybody from this timeframe heard it and tried to look it up with no results.

I looked at Ren. He smiled, then that smile turned into a frown.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

He looked away from me. "Nothing." He muttered.

I frowned now. "Okay…"

Honestly, Ren and I weren't that close as friends. We had barely even spoken to each other before today. I wondered whether he was upset with being dumped with me instead of Miu.

He turned to his other friends, and had a conversation with them. I didn't really join in.

When the bus pulled up to the arcade, nobody had even said a word to me once. I pulled out my wad of cash, and went immediately to the note exchanger for some coins, and inserted my cash in.

The clink of cash hitting metal. I put my hand in and took my coins out, and then started looking for a game I could play.

The arcade was boring. Nobody spoke to me and everyone stayed out of my way. I had a feeling I wasn't welcome here with this group like Miu was.

I ended up leaving. I told Ren that I was going home, and he shrugged me off.

I checked the time, and Miu wasn't going to be let out for another half hour. I decided to just take a walk. Maybe buy some things.

Thunder rolled across the sky, it was going to evidently rain. I walked into a convenience store, which had aisles of magazines and manga, and treats. In the corner above where the cashier was a TV, showing a special about a man named Kurou Otoharada who had died from a heart attack after attempting to hold some kids hostage at a nursery school.

I frowned… a heart attack? That couldn't have been Light, could it? We had taken the notebook off him. Unless... it was a fake notebook that we had stolen.

No, that couldn't have been right. It must have just been a coincidence.

I looked at the time showing on the screen, biting my lip. Cram school had ended 5 minutes ago, and there, sure enough, was Miu coming down the street. There was a girl walking behind her, and I could see Light there as well, walking half hidden in the shadows.

Then there was a screech and bright lights shone down on Miu and the girl. Four men on motorbikes circled around Miu and the other woman walking behind her. Miu stopped walking, and held the girl back.

I could see her freeze. Then I could see her get angry. I could see her breathing quicken, her hands balled into fists beside her.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" She asked harshly. I looked around, noticing that Light had entered the shop. I sidestepped him, and went outside.

I saw a short, burly man sit up straighter on his bike. "Hey, looks like this one has a potty mouth on her! Maybe she'll like her mouth on our-"

"If you touch me, I'll castrate you." She said with calm anger.

The men jeered. I pulled out my phone, and began dialling the emergency hotline number. One man had tried to grab the other girl's wrist, but Miu pulled her aside, so she was standing on the opposite side from where she was.

"Oh, she likes acting tough too! I like a tough girl. My name is Takuo Shibuimaru,"

"That's nice. I don't care."

The call rang through, and one of the men had grabbed the other girl and now was holding her against the motorbike.

"Who's this?" He asked. "This your friend? You've got pretty friends."

Miu had straightened up to full height. "I don't know who she is, but if you touch her, I'll kill you."

The receiver for which service and what situation I was in rang through my ears.

"Police please," I said, my voice rising, I was scared for Miu. I knew she was tough, and that she was an excellent fighter, with skills for offensive and defensive moves, and I knew that she was strong as hell, but her against four grown men, I didn't think that she'd be able to take it. "My friend and another woman is being harassed by four men. They have one girl against a motorbike, and they look like they're going to…"

"I understand, we'll have someone over there as soon as possible."

Shibuimaru had grabbed Miu's wrist, and I didn't even process what had happened. Somehow she had adjusted her wrist, so now she had hold of his wrist instead, and he was turned facing the opposite way, with his arm behind his back. She kicked his ankles, and he had fallen onto the ground, with Miu kneeling on top of him. He wasn't moving, evidently knocked out.

"Woah." I said in a hushed voice.

"Sorry, what was that?" The person on the line said.

"Oh, nothing, please just send someone here, I don't think you have to hurry." I hung up the phone.

Miu stood back up, her foot standing triumphantly on Shibuimaru's body. "Anybody else want to have a turn?" She asked taunting them.

One man was either brave, or stupid enough. He swung a fist at Miu, and she stepped to the left, his arm hitting air. He made a grunting noise, and Miu took a step backwards, standing behind the motorbikes, she ran around to the girl, who was against the motorbike which belonged to the person who was trying to fight Miu. She turned towards her, grabbing her by the wrist, she spotted me, and let her up to me.

"I called the cops," I told her.

"Good, look after her. She'll probably be in shock. Don't touch her, though."

I nodded. The girl stood in a daze next to me, shivering, even though she was wearing a long coat.

"Hey, come on. The police are coming." I told to her in a gentle voice. "Miu will take care of them, okay? Is there anything that you want?"

Her eyes found mine. "C-can we sit down?"

I nodded, "Of course. There's a bench over there." I guided her over there. Her legs were shaky, and when we made it, she had collapsed into the seat.

I could hear police sirens in the distance. Miu had knocked out another guy, and was holding the other two by their arms so that they wouldn't run away. I could see the police, and they had pulled up next to the curb.

Miu presented to two struggling creeps to the cops, and showed them the two that she knocked out.

"And… uh, you did that all by yourself?" The cop asked sceptically.

"Yep," Miu said bluntly. "That girl over there is in a worse state than I am, she was sexually harassed." She pointed to the girl next to me.

"Right. Can I ask how you learnt how to fight like that?"

Miu shrugged, as they came closer to us. "The internet, I guess."

"Hmm, interesting. Well, thank you for your statement."

"No problem, officer Matsuda." Miu said with a smile and they walked away. When she turned back to me, her face fell into a glare. She stormed into the convenience store that I was in, and that… Light was still in.

_Oh no_ I thought. I was going to chase after her, but I couldn't leave the girl.

"What's your name?" I asked her.

"It's Yuuna." She said.

I heard somebody yelling from inside the store, but the voice didn't match Miu's or Light's. The next second, I saw Light and Miu coming out of the store, both of them with ferocious looks on their faces, but Miu's was more pronounced.

She was yelling at him.

"You saw everything that was going on and you didn't _do_ anything? I could see you looking at us, but what did you do? Oh, you just kept on reading your _manga_!"

He didn't say anything for a while. They both had the same stance, closed fists, and intense glares, and then the most weirdest thing happened. Light had relaxed his entire body, and now was looking at her with a strange expression on his face. His eyes were half-lidded, and he looked… inhumanly attractive.

"Well," He said, his voice was husky. He leaned in closer to Miu. "I think you did pretty good out there by yourself. I didn't think that you could fight like that."

"Well, I can." She said bluntly, she took a step back, and Light took a step forward.

I could tell that Miu was trying to hold in her laughter, but then her expression changed as well. Her lips parted, and her eyes went big and doe eyed, and she was actually… cute.

What was she doing? My eyes were glued onto them, and so was Yuuna's.

Something broke through Light's expression, and then he leaned in close and whispered something into Miu' ear.

She smiled, and I felt jealousy shoot through me. Didn't she tell me that she was gay? What was she doing?

"I know." I read her lips. She smiled, but it was a twisted kind of smile. Her expression turned back to normal.

His face fell. He grabbed Miu by her shoulders, and the strange thing was that she let him. She didn't wriggle her way out of his grip. "What are you going to do with it?"

Her grin turned even wider. "Wouldn't you just like to know? Oh, and I also know that the one that I stole was a fake as well."

Were they talking about the death notes? She stole a f_ake _one… How did she know?

He released her. "Well, seems like you're smarter than I thought." He crossed his arms.

"Oh, I know I'm smart, but this isn't my intelligence. You see, I'm not like you at all, except we do share one trait with each other."

"Oh, and what's that?"

"Now, wouldn't that take out the fun in telling you?" She started to walk away. "Bye, Light." She spoke in a way which made it seem that she knew something that she didn't.

Light was left standing there. It had started to rain.

Miu walked back towards us. She had a neutral expression on her face, except I could see something else there. Exhaustion and… something else that I couldn't place.

She looked at Yuuna. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

"I'm… okay." She said.

"Is there anyone that we can call to pick you up?"

She nodded slowly, her eyes never reaching Miu's. "Yes." She said faintly. "My husband, but… could you wait with me?"

Miu's expression softened. I thought it was strange. It was like she could flip a switch and could show one expression on her face at any given time, even if she wasn't feeling like that, like a mask. "Of course." She said.

I was silent. I was confused. Miu was much different than what I had thought, or at least at this moment.

"Do you want me to call your husband?"

Yuuna shook her head. "No… no, I can do it." She took out phone with trembling hands, and dialled in a number.

"Please, can you pick me up. I need you. I-I… something terrible happened. Thank you."

I looked back to where Light had been standing, but now he was gone.

Until Yuuna's husband could pick her up, we comforted her. She didn't react to physical touches anymore, so we rubbed her back. The poor girl was freezing.

Her husband came out of the car as soon as she saw her, and ran out to us.

"Hey, Yuu. Are you okay?"

She let out a sob, standing up, and fell into his arms, crying into his jacket, while he rubbed her head. "Hey, it's okay. Everything is alright now, okay? You're safe."

She nodded. Her husband looked up at us. "Who are you?"

We introduced ourselves.

"Miu had fought off the men by herself, and Ayako called the police. They're sisters."

"Thank you." He said. "Thank you both so much. I-I must do something for you for saving Yuu."

"Oh," I started to object. "That's not necessary."

Miu nodded in agreement. "Yeah, having Yuu out safe is enough for us."

"Are you girls sure? At least let me give you a lift home. You seem young, and it's raining. I'm sure you don't want to go home in the rain."

Miu shook her head. "Sir, like we said, we're fine."

"Please," He pleaded. "It's not a problem.

"Oh… okay. I suppose." I said.

When we had went home, Miu almost passed out from exhaustion. I helped her to her bed. Sleeping in her clothes. When I was going to shut her light off, she spoke.

"Ayako, wait. I have to tell you something." Her voice was sombre.

"What is it?" I asked, standing in the doorframe. My shadow illuminated the ground.

"What happened today, between me and Light. I was only acting, you know that?" He voice was heavy with drowsiness.

"Oh… Right." I said. Could she have really seen through me so easily?

"Don't worry, I'm still gay. I just had to have the upper hand on Light." I could hear something like laughter come through her voice.

I nodded. "I know. It's okay, Just go to sleep."

"I feel like you're the only one I can be myself around." She said.

I turned off her light and shut her door.

I let her sleep on the bed for tonight, and I pulled the futon out into the living room, and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep.

When I woke up, I was hearing voices.

No, not voices in my head. _Kami _voices.

Toshigami and Hajime were in our house, unsummoned by me or Miu. Something must have happened.

I sat up. Toshigami was prowling around the house, while Hajime sat at the foot of my bed.

He lifted a finger. "Morning." He said.

"Um… good morning. What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing, just fancied a visit."

"Right."

Miu came out of our room, looking much more refreshed and alert.

"Um, what are they doing here?" She asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know."

Miu slumped into the couch.

Toshigami came over to us, and then lowered his hind legs and sat down, like a dog.

"So, any progress?" Hajime asked.

"Um. Not really." Miu said.

"No?" Hajime asked, "What have you been doing?"

"Well, we stole a notebook, but it's a fake."

"How do you know?" Toshigami asked.

"I can't see Ryuk anywhere." Miu said. "And yesterday I told Light that I knew and he basically confirmed it. I yelled at him though."

"You yelled at Kira?" Toshigami said.

"Yeah." Miu said. "Good thing he doesn't know our real names, am I right?"

"This is not the time for jokes." Toshigami said.

"I'm not joking."

I was silent throughout the whole exchange. But then I paused, realising something. My eyes widened. "Um… Actually I think we stopped Light from finding out that the death note actually works."

"What makes you say that?" Hajime asked.

"Well, I remember watching on the news that a criminal had died of a heart attack. That's Kira's preferred method of killing, right? I think, since we have a fake notebook, and Light has the real one, and since he was watching what was happening, if we hadn't been here while the girl was being harassed, he would have killed Shibuimaru."

"That's right." Toshigami said, as if he had asked her a question and she had answered correctly.

She frowned at him.

"You girls have done better than we have expected." Toshigami said. "Considering."

"Considering what?" I asked.

He didn't reply.

"Light is suspicious of us now, though." Miu said. "He knows that we're up to something, but he doesn't know what."

Toshigami stood up on all four legs. "I think you should just tell him the truth about what happened, and what will happen if he becomes Kira."

"Tell him the truth?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Why?" Miu asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Why would you go through such labours knowing that you'll fail the task, anyway?"

Like pushing up a boulder all the way up a hill but only having it fall down once it reached to the top.

Saturday 29th November

Miu wanted to cut her hair.

She had a pair of safety scissors in one hand, and was tugging her hair in the mirror.

"What day is it today?" She asked, surprising me.

"It would be my sister's birthday today."

"Oh, how old would she be?"

"20."

She held up the scissors to her hair in the bathroom mirror. And then there was a sharp knock on the door. I jumped, and I heard a snip come from the bathroom.

"Ah,_ fuck_!" Miu exclaimed. "Shit, fuck."

She came out of the bathroom, her head peeking at the door, and looked at me. She was aghast. She had only been meaning to give herself a trim, but she had missed one inch by about 5.

"Oh my god." I said. One side of her hair was up to the collar bone, some of it was up to her chin, and the part which she had just cut, was standing straight up. "I won't be able to hide this!" She exclaimed.

There was another impatient knock on the door. I went to answer it. "Just cut it like a boy's style. You'll look fine."

She brightened up. "Actually, that's a good idea! Long hair is annoying. Hmm, later can you get me an electric razor though? I want to have an undercut."

I open the door. Staring at the person in front of me. I turn back to Miu.

"Um, I don't think I'd be able to get you one later."

"Aw, why not?"

"We have a visitor."

"A visitor? Do I have to come outside?" She slowly closes the door to the bathroom.

"Well…"

"It would be good manners if you did." Came the masculine voice.

"Okay, now I'm _definitely _not coming out of the bathroom." Miu said defiantly.

Light Yagami was standing in my house.


	5. Chapter 5

I never sang for love, I never had a heart to mend  
Because before the start began, I always saw the end  
Yeah, I wait for you to open up, to give yourself to me

But nothing's ever gonna give, I'll never set you free

Starring Role/**/Marina and the Diamonds**

Miu's P.O.V

Starring Role

I didn't come out of the bathroom until I made Ayako get me a hat, so I could hide my horribly disfigured hair. I definitely would not come out and let Yagami see me like this, with my hair all at different lengths. Ayako came in and gave me a panda beanie which I shoved on my head. I straightened out my black singlet and shorts which I slumbered in, and walked out.

Light was standing near the wall next to the door and he cocked an eyebrow at my appearance. He probably hadn't seen me looking so dishevelled, and since I wasn't wearing any makeup, I probably looked like a completely different person. Oh well.

I crossed my arms. "How did you find us here?"

Ayako came up next to me, her expression was passive, and she was staring at Light.

"I heard you tell your address to that man the other night." He looked around of what he could see of the apartment, which was only the living room leading into the kitchen, and the doors of the bedroom. "Are your parents' home?" He asked.

I bit the inside of my cheek, "No. They've gone out." I lied. "Tell us, what do you want?"

"Cutting right to the chase, hmm? Well, ever since you stole the other death note from me, I've been wondering how you knew about it, and what you planned to do with it. Later that night, I met the shinigami, Ryuk, and he said that I was destined to be something big."

I scoffed, but he continued talking. "He said that he had come to meet me earlier than he meant to, whatever that meant, and also that you two knew more about the death note that what you let me and other people to believe, and I've been persuaded to try and get you to tell me what you know. Starting with the first question: Why did you steal the death note from me in the first place?"

We stood there and listened to him. Toshigami had said that it would be okay to tell him the truth, but I wanted to play with him a little bit longer.

"We stole it from you to keep you from making the biggest mistake of your life."

His eyes flashed. "Elaborate." He commanded.

I studied my nails. Taking a deep breath, "Well, see, we know about your plans to use the death note to make yourself a god of a utopian world with an absence of crime."

I could see him visibly swallow, his adam's apple bobbing up and down. "How do you know about that? I haven't told that to anyone but Ryuk."

It was funny, how right now I had the upper hand on someone who had the power to kill me with just a few flicks of a pen. He was trying to draw solid information from me, but I was going to keep telling him things that he already knew. Besides, I might have been from the future, but I had basically little knowledge of the Kira case apart from he killed criminals and that he died himself.

Thinking about it, honestly I was confused as to why I was chosen for this task to stop Kira. Even when I was younger, I had never supported him. Why kill people who the police were trying to capture anyway? Even if the criminals somehow got off the case, my limited knowledge of how the justice system worked probably would have allowed another trial for the accused if more proof showed up anyway.

"Let me ask you a question, Light. Why do you want to kill all these criminals?"

He looked at me, wondering what I was playing at, but I honestly wanted to know. I was curious.

"Because the world is rotten. Every day there are bad, terrible things going on all over the world. There is never any good things happening. Always death and criminal acts."

I crossed my arms, the corners of my mouth turning up. "Interesting." I said.

He released a sigh. "I don't have much time here." He started to walk towards us. "Just tell me what you know. Are you here to help me?"

"You could say that." I said. I looked at Ayako standing beside me, who was silent. I had been doing all of the talking, but I didn't mind. Honestly, I think Ayako's obvious crush on Light would have screwed us up anyway.

He was frowning, his mouth drawn into a tight line. "I'm not going to use the death note until you tell me what you want to do with it."

I gave a start. Oh man. He completely misunderstood. He thought that we wanted to use the death note for _ourselves_. The idea was so ridiculous I almost laughed.

"Well, thank god." I muttered. My mouth was slack now. I realised that I had gotten bored of playing with him.

Ayako looked at me. "Should we just tell him?" She asked in a low voice so that Light couldn't hear.

I shrugged. "I guess so, we're going to tell him anyway. Do you want to, or should I?"

"I can." She said. She looked back at Light. "Well, truth is, you're going to use the death note to become the god of the new world. For a time, crime rates will be lower, and there will be less murders and criminal acts because of you."

Goddamnit, I thought to myself. She was _praising _him. She continued talking.

"But then you're going to die and then all your efforts would all have been for nothing." She said quickly.

"You speak like you know for certain that that is going to happen."

I walked over and sat down on the couch. "That's because it will, if we're not here to stop you."

He followed me to the couch, and sat down next to me. Ayako was left standing. He didn't say anything for a while. He was thinking. He looked around the house, then at my phone charging on the table.

"You're from the future." He said, his eyes meeting mine. "That's how you know all of these things, isn't it?"

We didn't say anything. Our silence was good enough as an answer.

"So, I fail. Nobody acknowledges me after I die? How do I die, anyway?"

I swallow. I didn't want to tell him anything. He still had the death note in his possession, and with that, he could avoid being killed.

I decide to answer everything but his last question. "Of course, there are still the people who support you after you die. They believe that you're planning something. You're death wasn't actually released to the public, see. But we figured it out, since criminals had stopped dying. People lived in a fear of you, and in a fear of dying, so that's why the crime rates lowered."

He nodded. Then he stood up abruptly and began pacing up and down the length of the living room, which wasn't very long. He stopped, looking directly at me, something flashing in his eyes.

"Well then, to avoid my failure… I guess you're just going to help me to succeed."

My mouth went slack. No… I didn't want that to happen. I was anti-Kira. Murdering was wrong, and he only did is for his stupid ambition to become a god.

"No. We're not going to do that!" I exclaimed. I looked at Ayako, and she was looking at her shoes. She noticed that I was staring at her, and she looked back at me. Her eyebrows were turned upwards in indecision… don't tell me that she actually _wanted_ to help Light! "Ayako…" I said slowly. She looked back that the ground, then she looked back at Light with steely determination showing on her face.

"We're here to stop you from using the death note _at all_."

"I knew you were going to say that… that's why…" He started reaching for something inside of his coat pocket, and he pulled out the death note.

"You wrote our names in there, didn't you?" I said, my voice unsteady.

He flicked forward to a few pages. He had already written names in there, so many names. So many people dead. He showed us the page with our names on it, but I didn't care about that, after all, they weren't our real names.

"You said that you wouldn't use the death note until we told you what we knew. You lied to us." I stated.

He nodded. I looked at the clock ticking on the wall. We were due to die of a heart attack in less than 30 seconds. Of course, when that didn't work, Light would have figured out that those weren't our real names.

"Why do you do it? Why do you kill all of those people?" I asked. The way I said it seemed like I as accepting my death. Light wouldn't find anything suspicious in my question.

He stopped for a moment. "Because… the world is rotten."

Our time was up. Strangely, Ayako was acting as if she was going to die. Her breathing quickened, like she was hyperventilating.

I looked at her. "Ayako, what are-?"

"Your time is up." Light said, he was frowning. "You should be dead right now. Those…aren't your real names, are they?"

I would have answered him, but I was too focused on Ayako. I stood up and went around to her.

"Ayako, take deep breaths, okay?" Slowly, her breathing became normal. "Do you need some water?"

She shook her head. "I don't understand. Those were our real names." She said in a quiet voice. She was looking down, then she looked back up at me intensely. _Play along, _she seemed to be saying to me.

"Well, whatever the matter is, we're safe now."

She looked back at Light, the corners of her lips turned up. "We must be immune to the powers of the death note, somehow. You can't kill us."

A bitter laugh escaped from his mouth. "You expect me to believe that? You just gave me false names."

She shook her head. "No, that's our true names. It must be something about the time travel then. Maybe it won't effect us because we're originally from your future."

I understood what she was trying to do. She was trying to make Yagami think that if the death note did not work on us, he would simply have to accept it. Of course, if he did manage to find out what our actual last names were, then sure enough we would be dead without a second thought.

"However…" Ayako said, her voice lowered. "I can understand what you are trying to do, to make the world into a utopia without any crime, but I don't condone your murders. Strangely enough, I also don't want you to die either. "

What was she saying...?

"I'm going to help you in the decriminalisation of the world."

My breath hitched in my thoat. I stood up straight and turned towards Ayako. "What are you saying…?" I said, my voice had come out in a whisper.

She tore her eyes away from Yagami. I couldn't read his expression. She took hold of my wrist and dragged me into the kitchen, where we could talk in private.

"What are you doing?" I hissed. "I didn't know you were one Kira's side?"

"I'm not. I just don't want anyone to die here, including Light."

"Well, the whole plan was to get the death note off him, and then go home! I think that's a pretty secure method of making sure that no one dies!"

She shook her head. "No, it's not. Who knows how many other death notes there are. Ryuk, or another shinigami would just keep on dropping them, leaving Kira to keep doing what he is doing. We need to get on the inside, to make sure that he stops."

"Well, what do you plan to do?" I specifically excluded myself, to let her know that I wasn't going to be a part of this.

"Light thinks the only way to get rid of criminals is to kill them. Sometimes, it's justified, like people who got off trial even though they obviously murdered someone. But most of the time it's not. He kills people already on death row, or already in jail. I'm going to persuade him to stop. Leave it up to the police to catch the criminals."

I couldn't believe I was hearing this. "You just expect Yagami to simply _listen _to you? He's crazy, and he's got a screwed up sense of justice! Just take the death note off him, and be done with it! Like Toshigami said: Why would you even try at something knowing that you're going to fail anyway?"

Ayako came back at my comment with a speedy rebuttal. "To say that you've tried, anyway. There's nothing wrong with trying."

"That's not what I meant. And you're taking this completely out of context, anyway. Kira is a _murderer._ Whatever you want to do… pretend to be a superhero, or whatever… that needs to stop, Ayako. You don't know the dangers that you are getting yourself into."

She crossed her arms, and let out a deep sigh. "You should stop underestimating me, Miu. I know that my plan is going to work."

"What is your plan?" I asked. "What role do I have to play in it?"

"You're going to watch my back, just in case I do something stupid and doom us all."

I noticed that she avoided my question about what her plan is. She wasn't going to tell me, and not to mention, she was making me her sidekick.

I sighed. "I don't-"

"Please, I know what I'm doing."

"I'm not so sure that you do."

She let out groan. Looked at me once, then stormed back outside to Light.

"I'm going to help you in your plan to become god." I heard Ayako say.

I pulled my beanie more securely over my head, put on some shoes, and stormed out of the door.

I wasn't going to act from the sidelines for something I didn't believe in. Light Yagami was a murderer, and I was going to sabotage his plans every chance I got.

But first, I had to fix the atrocity that was my hair.

December 5th 2003

I sat in front of the TV, flicking through the channels finding nothing of interest. Ayako sat next to me, but after she claimed that she was going to help Yagami with his plan of becoming Kira, I only spoke to her if she spoke to me first.

I kept pressing the button for the next channel, when suddenly they all displayed the same thing.

A man named Lind L. Tailor was speaking in a microphone, addressing none other than Kira.

I could remember this. It had scarred me. Lind L. Tailor was pretending to be the great and mysterious detective L, in a ploy to lure Kira into revealing his destination. It was a moment in my life which scarred almost everyone I knew, which is probably why I could remember it so clearly.

I looked at Ayako, who was staring at the tv with her mouth parted. She frowned, and then the phone rang.

There was only one person who knew our phone number, and that was Light Yagami.

I wasn't going to answer the phone for him, so Ayako did it instead.

"Hello?" She asked when she got up to the phone on the coffee table.

I didn't know what was being said on the other end.

"Yes, I am."

Pause.

"I don't know what I think. I've never seen this before."

Wait, she hadn't? Then I remembered that Ayako was born in the Philippines and lived there for quite some time, and only moved to Japan in 2010 and if I could remember correctly, this 'worldwide' program was only being broadcasted in the Kanto region of Japan.

I don't think it was any secret that I wanted Kira to be caught, so when Ayako looked at me to know if I knew anything about this broadcast, I shook my head, because after this moment, the hunt for Kira would have truly been on.

She turned back to the phone. "We don't know what happens. Do what you will."

I turned away from the screen, because I knew that in that moment, that Lind L. Tailor was going to die of a heart attack.

And so he did.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: i was proofreading this and i found an error with the point of view where it changed into 3****rd**** person for a paragraph and i tried 2 find it to fix it but i couldnt find it so if u can find it can u pls point out where it is so i can fix it**

Miu's P.O.V

Home

I looked away from the TV screen, as Lind L Tailor writhed in pain and collapsed onto the ground, as he was hauled away by two men in black suits. I didn't want to witness that again. I could still remember my mother shielding my eyes from the screen and turning me away, but it had been too late.

Thankfully, I knew now it was going to happen, so I didn't have to see it again. Ayako wasn't so lucky. I could see her jaw tighten, and she looked away to the side. Her breathing had become slightly ragged.

The hotline if someone who knew who Kira was flashed onto the screen. I memorised the number for later.

Internally, I felt like rejoicing. Not because of Ayako's reaction, but because with every reaction I took to Light's and Ayako's actions, I was getting every step closer to getting Kira caught, and with my knowledge of future events, I could leak them to the police force, and more importantly, to L. However, if I did it publicly, that would probably make me a suspect of being Kira, so I would send them anonymously.

"Oh no…" Ayako said under her breath. I looked back at the screen which had just turned a blinding white, save for a fancy, gothic looking L large and clear on the middle of the screen.

The synthetic voice echoed through our ears. L telling Kira that he would find him, and that he is justice. Strangely, I felt like I was listening in on a private conversation.

"We need to fix this!" Ayako exclaimed. She listed her phone up from her lap and began fumbling for the dials, to call Light.

I sighed. "Just leave it, Ayako. There's nothing that you can do now."

She hasn't finished dialling in Light's number, and she looks at me incredulously. "Do you even care at all?"

I stood up and walked into the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water from the tap, trying to think of a way to word my answer. "Honestly, I just wanted this whole thing to be over and done with as soon as possible. I really don't care about Light, but I do care about myself and about my future. We could have just stolen the other death note and went home, but _no, _you had to let your little crush on Yagami get in the way, because you think that if you could help him, then that would make him _like_ you."

I had a talent for reading people. And Ayako was very easy to read.

"Are you that selfish?" She said quietly.

I set the glass of water I was drinking out of on the table angrily. I stalk around the benchtop so that I am face to face with Ayako. "Oh, I'm selfish for wanting to go _home_? I'm only here because of _you, _Ayako! We could have fixed everything just by stealing the death note-"

"You don't know that."

I laughed bitterly. "Neither do you! So you just go ahead with a plan of making Light succeed in becoming the world's most delusional murderer, like he wasn't going to become that without our help, if we weren't here. Sure, what other way to avoid the downfall of humanity than to make the cause of humanity's downfall to gain even more power than he had before! Whatever you're planning to do, I'm not going to be a part of it, you understand?"

I ran my hands through my short hair, right after Light left. I stomp into my room, pull on a jacket and shove my feet into my platform sandals I wore when I first arrived, and walk to the door.

"Where are you going?" Ayako asked solemnly.

I paused with my hand on the door, looking back at her. "I'm… going for a walk." I sighed.

I leave the room, going to the elevator. I press the button multiple times. I feel a presence behind me, and I turn my head slightly to get a look. It's a man about the same height of me. I turn back around, shoving my hands into my pocket, my hand twisting around Toshigami's toy firework. The elevator is on the third floor, and I was on the ninth floor.

Toshigami appeared beside me, unbeknownst to the man behind me. I look at him with my mouth drawn tight, and fish out my phone. I start to dial a random number. I needed to ask for his advice on what to do about Ayako, and I couldn't do that with this guy standing behind me.

I put the phone to my ear and wait a few seconds to pretend that it was ringing. The elevator was now on the 5th floor.

"Hey, it's me." I said casually. "Um, I just wanted to tell you something about Ayako. I thought everything was going well, but she started to… well, she wants to see _him _now." I said bitterly. I could feel the man shift uncomfortably, and he moved next to me, standing in Toshigami, who was apparently intangible.

I waited for Toshigami to answer, holding the phone pressed against my ear.

"I am deeply disappointed in Ayako, however I can't say that I didn't expect something like this from her. Studying her, I've noticed that she is quite flighty, and what with Light's extremely manipulative personality and conventially attractive features… there was hardly a doubt that Ayako would have not been persuaded by him to do whatever he asks for-"

"Hang on, you say that, then how come you let her do this with me? If she was just going to fail anyway, then what was the point? I could be at home right now if it wasn't for her." I could feel anger rising in me.

Toshigami keeps going as if I hadn't even spoke. The elevator had reached its destination, and I walked in to the very corner, leaning against the railing. The other guy took the corner opposite me. He was looking ahead, trying not to listen to me, or maybe he was, since there was nothing else to do in the elevator. I didn't really mind. I would have done the same.

"Our goal is to eradicate Kira from the world, and as it is, we're not going to send you back in time to to stop Light from getting the notebook again, because even now, we have L on the case." He said that with a hint of laughter, though I didn't know why. "And with you being anti-Kira, or rather, anti-Light in general, if you can find a way to contact L, then you can stop him together, and stop many pointless deaths along the way. This is the new plan. As of now, you can consider yourself justice, and Ayako as injustice, just like the opposite versions of Kira and L. And yet, you are still the opposite sides of the same coin."

I paused, processing this. The elevator started moving upward, before it went down, probably another person wanting to catch the elevator as well.

"So, what do I do now?" I asked.

"You have to regain Ayako's trust. You have to act like you support Kira, and then the much more harder task, you have to find L and get him to trust you."

Find him… "How am I supposed to do that? He's practically impossible to find." I can remember my best friend nicknaming him the impossible detective, because well, that's what he was.

"Well, you're lucky you have me on your side, because it's easy for me to find him. Who knows, he could be right under your nose." Toshigami said cryptically.

I paused, then I looked at the man next to me. He had his hands shoved in his pockets, and slouched slightly. I swallowed, realising what Toshigami said. "You mean…"

Toshigami shook his entire body like a dog shaking water off its fur. His maw twisted upwards into a grotesque smile that even Ryuk would be jealous of.

"Well, what am I supposed to say now? I can't talk to him. Can I write him a letter or something instead?" For me, meeting and talking to strangers was something extremely hard for me to do. I would completely freeze up. "Let's talk about something else." The elevator stopped. "You're like omnipresent or something" I laughed, hoping that the joking way I said that wouldn't have made L suspicious of me, though I couldn't think why. I had been vague with all my answers to Toshigami.

"I'm a god, it's in the job description, dear human."

"Yeah, and you also sleep for the entire year as well." The doors of the elevator opened, and a stout woman hobbled in, she looked at me and L, huffed and stood in the middle of the elevator, as it started going down.

"That's right, but unfortunately this task has turned me into somewhat of an insomniac. I've been sleeping every chance I can get."

"Oh, right." I said. I felt a jolt in my stomach as the elevator finally started going down.

"However, I think I can handle a few years of inadequate sleep."

I started at that. "A few years?" I almost yelped. The old woman turned around and glared at me. I pursed my lips and smiled sheepishly, L didn't even blink. "Why would that take a few years?"

"Oh, just in case we fail a lot and follow Kira's entire story line."

"Okay… whatever that means…" I trailed off. "Should I just talk to him now?"

"I think that would be best."

I nod swallowing, "Alright. I'll do it in a sec."

"Okay, I also think you should apologise to Ayako."

"Apologise to her? I didn't even do anything wrong. She's the one being irrational. She doesn't even know what she's going to do, she's blinded by her stupid crush." I said quietly.

"Calm down, Miu. I know, and I agree with you, but you have to do it. She already trusts you, no doubt, but she is hurt, and there is much that Light can do to twist those hurt feelings around to morph into distrust. The point is, you need to gain Kira's trust. You're going to become a mole. Then you're going to tell all that is going to happen to L."

I nodded. The elevator reached to a stop, and we walked out of the elevator. I walked behind L. An elderly man walked briskly over to L carrying some suitcases.

"Your things," The old man said, stepping aside.

L started to drag his suitcases along behind him. "Thank you, Watari."

"Can you follow him?" I said quietly to Toshigami, so that he couldn't hear me. Toshigami nodded, and began to stalk behind them. "Come back to me when you're done." I said loudly into the phone, and then hung up. I smiled. I actually found this quite exciting.

I had accepted the going back in time part quite easily. Something like this would have sent anyone into an existentialist crisis, but not me. Some part of me was actually sort of… expecting something like this to happen, for something that shouldn't be possible to happen. Something like this only happened in fiction, and that overjoyed Miu, no matter how much she wanted to go home, it was nice feeling like she was important to the fate of the world.

I leave the apartment block, sneaking glances at myself. My haircut wasn't some kind of epiphany sort of thing, like: okay, I'm in a new time zone, time for a hair cut to let go of the old me kind of thing like that, it was just something that I wanted to do for a very long time, but my mother wouldn't have let me cut it this short, and without any parents to tell me no, I just did it, and I liked it.

I decided to actually go on a walk and wait for Toshigami to come back to me with news on where L was going. I thought that it couldn't have been a coincidence that Toshigami had put us in an apartment where L was staying. He must have suspected that something like this would have happened. That Ayako would turn on the plan, and go her own path. I wondered why he didn't say anything about it.

I didn't really have any aim to my walk. It was boring. I walked around the block and then went down to the shops, just for some different scenery.

Toshigami came to me a few minutes later. His fur was ruffled and he looked winded. He had been running.

"He is at a construction site on the outskirts of Tokyo. I can take you there, if you would like."

I shook my head. "Not right now. I'm going to go back to Ayako."

He nodded, and we went back to my apartment together.

I opened the door, and peeked my head in. Ayako wasn't sitting in the living room, so I had a look in the bedroom, and she wasn't there either.

"Ayako…?" I called out.

I heard the toilet flush and then Ayako came out, drying her hands on a towel.

"Hey, Ayako. Um, I'm sorry that I yelled at you. I went on a walk and then I realised that… well, I think you're right… We should help Light. That's the only way that we can fix this." I lied.

"You think so?" She asked quietly, looking to the ground.

"Yeah."

"What made you change your mind?"

"Well, I realised that Kira's killings are sort of… justified. The world is… rotten, just like Yagami had said." I said. Of course, I wasn't going to mention that the only reason that Light thought the world was rotten was because that all he did was watch the news, probably. And what else would news stations report about other than the horrible things that happened, and most of those reports were over glorified anyway.

Ayako looks up at her, and moves in front of her. "I'm happy that you're seeing things my way now. You won't regret it."

I smiled, knowing full well that I would. Soon enough, the truth would come out, and they wouldn't be able to trust me anymore.

December 9th 2003

Ayako walks over to the counter in the sink, a picks up her phone. She begins to dial a number.

"Who're you calling?" I asked hesitantly.

"Light, of course. He's the only persons number I have apart from yours that would actually work in this time." She held her phone up to her ear, and I went onto the other side of the counter, resting my arms on it and leaning forward.

"Put it on speaker phone," I suggested.

"Good idea," She said, then pressed the button for the speaker, and set her phone on the table. She had a grin on her face.

Light answered on the second ring.

"Ayako." He acknowleged.

"And Miu!" Ayako chirped. "We have the phone on speaker."

I could hear Light sigh. "Right. Well, take it off speaker phone because I have things I want to tell you privately."

I looked at Ayako suggestively, raising my eyebrows up and down. "Not like that, pervert." Ayako giggled.

"Huh?" Light asked, confusion evident in his voice.

"Nothing." Ayako said quickly. "But, what do you want to say that you can't say to Miu?"

He sighed. "Just turn it off, please."

"Do you think that she is untrustworthy?" Ayako asked.

Light didn't answer, and Ayako took that as a yes. I was unsurprised that Light wouldn't trust me so easily. He was smart.

"Well, I trust her, so that should be good enough for you. I accept her, so you're just going to have to deal with it." Ayako said with finality in her voice.

Then I was surprised. Surprised that Ayako would actually talk back to Light like that. It was probably because he was behind a phone and that she couldn't see his face which was why she was able to talk so freely without stumbling over her words or faltering. Also because it was harder for Light to manipulate her from over a phone, and the way that Ayako was talking to Light like he was an insolent child was enough for her to win my respect.

"Fine." He said. "The police force have got L on their side now, and they've narrowed down suspects into someone who is a school student, or who works during those hours."

"Alright, well…" She looks at me. "You know there is an easy way to avoid this completely."

"And what's that?"

"Well, you could stop being Kira altogether…" She said hesitantly. My breath hitched and I looked at her. She smiled serenely at me.

She was trying to make Light to give up his dream because she realised that I actually meant what I was saying about wanting to go home.

"You know that I'm not going to do that, Ayako. Did Miu make you say that?" He growled.

She sighed, and I felt like punching his stupid face.

"No, I didn't." I said harshly.

"It was just a suggestion." Ayako said.

I laughed slightly, thinking that maybe I was rubbing of on her about my long rants about Light how he would just ask you to do something and then he would expect you to do it without question, and would get angry when you dared to make a simple suggestion that went against his plans. My dad was like that. I yelled at him a lot.

"Okay. I'm sorry." Light said. One major difference between him and my dad, Light said sorry, even if he didn't mean it.

"Whatever. You carry on this task and you see where it gets you." It was hard to tell whether Ayako was threatening Light, or whether she was just making a statement. She hung up on the phone without another word.

Ayako turned around and lifted herself up on the counter so that she was sitting on it. "A few things that we've deduced from this phone call: Light doesn't trust you, Light doesn't like suggestions, and he is a very good liar, but strangely enough, he is less charismatic on the phone rather than when you are talking face to face with him."

I paused for a moment, trying to decipher her words. "What are you saying? That you're trying to get into Light's… I don't know… _inner circle _so that you can… help us from the inside?"

She smiled. "Precisely… but even so, I still stick by plan of not letting him die."

I nodded, expecting that. "Right, well then I suppose I should tell you about what happened when I left." I started recalling what had happened when I summoned Toshigami, and about his plan about getting to work with L, to help him find Kira.

When I had finished, she nodded, looking at me intently. "How about, you can work with L, and I'll work with Light. I'll make Light see the… light," She faltered. "No pun intended, and you can help L."

I nodded. "Deal."

10th December 2003

I unpeeled the paper of a sticky hook, and carefully stuck it on the door. Ayako handed me over a wreath of holly, and I hung it on the protruding hook. Christmas was nearing, and we wanted to get into a more festive mood.

Soon, we would go Christmas shopping, even though there wasn't very many people we knew to buy gifts for. Our huge wad of money that Toshigami had gave us was still in abundance, so we had plenty to buy gifts for all our friends at school, and for each other. Ayako was going to buy something for Light as well, though I couldn't see why. I told her a couple of days ago just to buy him some socks.

The week had been full of my friends talking about Kira, news stations talking about Kira, and other various media talking about Kira.

Light had come up with a plan to start killing one person on the hour. I had tried to go to the nearest police station whenever I could, but I always saw Light hanging around there, so I ducked away before he could see me. I wondered what Light was doing always hanging around there. He probably was there just to see if I would come in and do what he expected me to do, and what I would have done if he wasn't around.

Typically enough, I had forgotten the number for the hotline if we knew anything about Kira, and looking on the internet turned up no results, since the internet wasn't as defined as it was in my time.

The only thing left to do was to track down L, which I was finding hard to do as well, since whenever I would go to the contruction site, where it seemed that they were building a new land for an apartment, L was never around. I wondered where he was staying, since he had taken his suitcases along with him when Toshigami had tracked him down to the construction site.

I mostly just spent my time at home waiting for something interesting to happen.


End file.
